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Dec. 9, 2021 - Sean Hannity Show
42:15
The War on Small Business - December 9th, Hour 3
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When news broke earlier this year that baby KJ, a newborn in Philadelphia, had successfully received the world's first personalized gene editing treatment.
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Now, we've discussed, and by the way, they're about to light the Christmas tree, the new Christmas tree at the Fox News channel.
I think it's going to be bigger.
They call it Fox Square, and it's along 6th Avenue in New York City and 48th Street.
If you live in the New York area, you want to go and stop by and see it.
They're making a big deal about it.
I will not be there, but for people that want to, obviously I can't be here at the same time.
One of the things that has been pretty amazing, if you go back to the ratings of Johnny Carson, they were massive.
I mean, massive.
You know, 20 shares, 15 shares.
I mean, even over the years, you go back to the days of Letterman versus Leno.
I mean, Leno was easily four, five, six share in the ratings.
And Letterman, you know, when he became political, his ratings started to decline.
And Leno, he didn't care who he was making fun of.
He was just being funny.
And that's what's now missing from late night comics.
You know, Colbert's show was pretty much dead, gone, and buried.
And then Donald Trump came on the scene and he built a little audience of I Hate Donald Trump sycophants, never Trumpers.
And he's not stopped the never-ending left-wing, radical, you know, so-called humor that's not funny anymore.
And people see it.
You know, people like him and Kimmel and Fallon, they barely can reach 2 million viewers a night because that's not what people want from a comedian.
And I think the comedian that steps forward and one day is just trying to make you laugh before you go to sleep and non-political will be the one that breaks through.
Now, it's interesting on the Fox News channel because Greg Gutfeld's late night show, which has a lot of humor in it, he's a very funny guy, friend of the show.
Greg Guttfeld's show is now competing with these network shows, and he's right on their ass.
And it's in large part because he's the only one that has a different political viewpoint.
Anyway, and for him, anything that's funny is fair game.
So Colbert last night, and Joe Concha had a really interesting tweet over this.
He said, overpaid, predictable, second place, late night comics, self-proclaimed devout Christian celebrating arson of a Christmas tree.
There's what happened last night with Colbert.
The holiday season is in full swing already here in New York.
The Christmas lights are burning bright, especially over at Fox News headquarters.
Where last night the Fox News Christmas tree was set on fire.
Now, I know what you're thinking, but the ghost of Hugo Chavez has an alibi.
Thankfully, no one was hurt.
We're not talking about a couple of toasted pine cones here.
Take a look.
Crispy Kringles.
Of course, this would never have happened if the tree had a gun.
Come on.
You got a squirrel.
Give a squirrel.
Give a squirrel a gun or something like that.
Fox News tried to warn us this was coming.
Every time a store clerk says, happy holidays, a Christmas tree bursts into flames.
In New York at midnight last night, the Fox News Christmas tree was engulfed in flames.
The fire is believed to have started after Fox News' pants caught on fire.
But the fire is believed to have started because Judge Janine Pirro ate one too many rum balls and breathed on a cigarette.
Someone set fire to the 50-foot Christmas tree outside the Fox News studios.
And it's not clear how this happened.
I mean, it could be an accident.
Could be Austin.
Could be Santifa.
It's not clear.
And unfortunately, we can't ask the tree because like all Fox employees, it had to sign an NDA.
And honestly, even calling this thing a tree is such a stretch.
Because I don't know if you saw this.
Once the flames went out, it turns out that this thing was just like scaffolding covered in pine needles.
I'm sorry, but that's not a tree.
That's just a jungle gym with a buddy hair problem.
All right.
So, you know, some of it was mildly funny, but it's the never end.
That's all they will joke about is anything conservative.
You know, I mean, you would think that Joe Biden being incoherent would be a great source of material for late night comics.
They never do it, ever.
That's how partisan they become.
And it's reflected, you know, they've got, you know, they're barely, they're way under 2 million viewers these shows a night.
If you get to the Trevor Knowers and the Seth, what's that guy's name?
Seth Meyers of the World.
They're under a million viewers a night.
These are broadcast channels.
This was unheard of.
Anyway, joining us to weigh in, Joe Concha is with us.
He, of course, Fox News contributor, columnist for The Hill, Carol Roth, author of The War on Small Business.
You know, it's mildly funny, but the problem is it's so predictable, as you said in your tweet, Joe, that it's every second, every day, every show, every single comedian.
They're all the same.
It's not comedy, Sean.
like watching an extension of cnn it's not even i i'm not like c it's like fake news cnn with a yuck here and there Right, right.
And CNN, of course, now stands for the Craftastic News Network, right?
Or the Chaos News Network, or whatever you want to call it.
They've got their own problems.
We can talk about that at another time.
But you mentioned Colbert has something like 17 writers.
He's got multiple producers.
He's got an army over there to do that show every night.
And Gutfeld, and I know this for a fact in talking to Greg, he doesn't have any army of writers.
He doesn't have an army of producers.
He's basically kind of doing it on his own and maybe like two or three other people.
And let me give you the latest numbers.
Guttfeldt averaging 2.1 million viewers.
Colbert, 1.9 million.
He's beating the broadcast guy who has a six-year head start in that particular time slot.
And then Seth Meyers, he can't even get a million to your point.
And you'd play Trevor Noah.
Would never be confused with Jon Stewart.
He can't even get 500,000 viewers over at the Daly show.
And let me give you one more number before you go to Carol because I know she had a lot of interesting things to say here.
You mentioned Carson before.
Carson averaged 15 million viewers a night in the 1980s.
Leno and Letterman, 5 million, 4.5 million.
It ain't even close now because half the country is predispositioned to know they're not going to watch because they know what they're going to get, which is conservative bashing and not a lot of comedy, quite frankly.
And Leno, and listen, Carson embraced people of all political persuasions.
He'd have on, you know, people from Reagan, feminist activists, you know, Jane Fonda.
He put anybody on his show.
And with every single guest, he wasn't berating them or mocking them.
He would inquire, he would ask, he'd throw in jokes every single time.
And the same with Leno and Letterman up to a point.
And then as soon as Letterman went harder and harder left, he started losing audiences.
The gap between him and Leno grew pretty dramatically.
Carol.
Yeah, I think you're exactly right.
If you think back to sort of the heyday of Letterman and what is it that we love to watch?
We like to watch stupid pet tricks.
We like the quarterback challenge.
You wanted the escapism.
You didn't want to be berated with this political talking down like every single moment.
And even when the shows of the past did it, it was funny, or at least you were in on the joke.
If you remember during the OJ trial, Jay Leno had the dancing Edos and for Judge Lance Ito, which again was completely absurd, but it was kind of this funny running joke.
If they were really wanting to cover the news and do something topical, I mean, the Jussie Smollett trial provides all kinds of humor that we should all be laughing at together, but they won't touch that with a 10-foot pole because, you know, that's all about MAGA country.
You know, that's such a good point.
I mean, those would be ripe for comments, commentary, Joe Biden's, you know, cognitive decline.
I'm sorry, but they would find ways to make it funny.
It would be sad, but they wouldn't dare touch it, Joe.
And you have the sound bites to work with.
It's not like you even have to find a Biden impersonator.
Just play a clip like we were talking about yesterday about gas prices.
And they're down 20 cents.
No, he means $20.
No, he means below $3.
No, they're below $2.
It's just completely and totally rights itself in these situations.
Or Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, I am certain there is material there when she denies that smash and grab looting isn't really going on.
And then you just juxtapose, it's called a split screen, very easy, and your show goes.
That rights itself, Sean.
I hate to tell you what, I mean, we do a lot of this.
And, you know, for a long time, Carol, I was mocking Joe Biden's, you know, cognitive gas.
And at some point, I began to realize this isn't funny anymore.
This guy's a mess.
And it's now getting, I think, progressively, discernibly worse on a daily basis.
Now we're headed towards a real crisis in the country and the world.
And the serious side of me takes over because, uh-oh, you know, look at what Putin's doing.
Look at what President Xi is doing.
He's lifting sanctions on the mullahs in Iran.
Our economy is an utter mess.
And this guy can't put a coherent sentence together.
It's not funny to me anymore.
Yeah, I think that's a really valid point, Sean.
You know, in one sense, you want to kind of laugh because it's the only coping mechanism.
But the reality is that the average American is having to live through these things.
And with his cognitive decline, he has all of these other people who seem to be running the agenda and also repainting the agenda on the economy.
You have the White House chief of staff, who I like to call Ron Klain, quote-unquote, economic genius trademark, who comes to try and tell you how great the economy is in the same breath when we just got numbers that total employment level is still 3.5 million people down from where it was in February 2020, and about 2.4 million people have exited the workforce.
So it is a tough situation.
It's impacting every American.
And, you know, we try to have these moments of humor so we can cope, but it is a pretty serious situation.
Well, it's serious enough that, in fact, it's going to now play out before the entire world here.
Quick break.
We'll come back.
More with Joe Contra, Carol Roth, and your calls, 800-941 Sean.
Our number.
All right, we continue.
Yeah, late night comedy is not scoring big in the ratings anymore because they're not funny and they're very partisan.
We continue our discussion with Joe Contra and Carol Roth.
You know, I'm watching what's going on at CNN, and I know you have a lot to say about it, Joe Concha.
And you might have been surprised that I took the position that, you know, it's not the worst offense in the world that Cuomo was defending his brother.
Andrew, my guess is, my strong guess is as Andrew Cuomo was not telling the truth to the world, nor was he telling the truth to his brother.
And, you know, you don't stop being a brother just because you have a TV show.
And I don't believe that CNN was out of the loop on this at all.
I think they were fully aware when they in the beginning of COVID when Chris would bring on his brother, what was going on.
They didn't see a conflict then.
They were fully aware.
He acknowledged and apologized as the network asked him to do, I'm sure, as it relates to when he was first implicated in the idea that he was helping his brother.
And what we really learned from the Attorney General and the release of these documents is not much different than that which we already knew.
So what?
He's helping his brother.
I get it.
His brother probably lied to him.
I think the point you make around did senior management know and when did they know it, the top brass, that's more important right now.
And Chris Cuomo is going to sue, if he already hasn't started that process, CNN for the remainder of his contract.
It's something like $18 million.
And he says that his bosses there knew exactly what they were doing and what he was doing and they were okay with it.
Now, when the discovery period comes out at this point, when Cuomo has texts or emails showing that to be true, then what happens at CNN?
Because that's when things really implode.
Because remember, John Malone now is the biggest shareholder of CNN.
Who's John Malone?
He's a pretty big deal in media, mainly radio.
And Liberty Media is what he's a CEO of.
And he literally said on CNBC of all places, Carol's former home, that CNN needs to go back to doing journalism.
And Fox News does a good job at doing journalism.
This is all on CNBC.
It's just remarkable to watch.
So that's the case.
And now the scuttlebutt is that there's going to be many heads rolling at CNN as they make that pivot back because whatever they're doing now isn't working.
When you lose eight and ten of your viewers since the beginning of the year, which they have done, and you're losing to the food network, INSP, which plays gun smoke reruns, I'm not joking with you, TLC, two Hallmark channels, and a partridge in a pear tree.
When you're losing all those channels, Sean, you got problems.
You've got to make changes.
Just like a football team, if they're 0-1-11, you fire the coach and you get new players.
The bottom line is, I don't call for boycotts, firings, cancellations.
That's up to the audience, Carol.
I think you're right.
And I have to say, Joe Concha, I like the Food Network.
I really enjoy it.
I don't know how to cook, but I enjoy watching a good food network show.
And, you know, I have to back up Sean for a second because I said the same thing about Chris Cuomo.
You know, it's human nature.
Of course, if you're in a position and you have a family member who's in need, you're going to help them.
And of course, the family member is going to paint it to you as, oh, this person's trying to run me into the ground.
Can you help?
I don't see the issue in that.
The issue is for CNN to decide if it's a conflict of interest for somebody to be interviewing their brother.
And if they decide that that's not, I feel like that's more of a network issue than it is an anchor issue.
So it will be very interesting to see if it gets to the point where there is any discovery of this information or if they want to settle it and put the kibosh on it so it never makes the light of day.
All right.
Thank you, Carol Roth, Joe Concha, 800-941-Sean, our number.
When we come back, we'll hit the phones.
Quick break, right back.
When news broke earlier this year that baby KJ, a newborn in Philadelphia, had successfully received the world's first personalized gene editing treatment.
It represented a milestone for both researchers and patients.
But there's a gripping tale of discovery behind this accomplishment and its creators.
I'm Evan Ratliff, and together with biographer Walter Isaacson, we're delving into the story of Nobel Prize winner Jennifer Doudna, the woman who's helped change the trajectory of humanity.
Listen to Aunt CRISPR, the story of Jennifer Doudna with Walter Isaacson on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.
Hey there, I'm Mary Catherine Hamm.
And I'm Carol Markowitz.
We've been in political media for a long time.
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That's why we started Normally, a podcast for people who are over the hysteria and just want clarity.
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Catch new episodes of Normally every Tuesday and Thursday on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen.
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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, a verdict has been reached.
25 now to the top of the hour in the Jussie Smollett trial.
And this is, what, nearly three years after he told police two Trump-loving bigots beat him up, tied a noose around his neck, doused him in bleach on a blistering night in January.
We might get the verdict read in this half hour.
So we're on verdict watch, obviously.
And, you know, a lot of information came out there.
Defense vehemently maintaining Smollett was the victim of a real hate crime.
Justice Smollett taking the stand in this case.
He called the brothers sophisticated liars and criminal.
The brothers are the people that were involved that turned on him.
13 witnesses and a lot of text messages and private messages back and forth.
The tape of Jussie Smollett the day before doing what they called a dry run-through.
This is going to be very interesting to see which way this all goes.
So we're watching that this half hour.
800-941 Sean is our number.
We'll get to your calls here in a minute.
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Anyway, by the way, Leo Terrell 2.0 Terrell, Greg Jarrett are joining us.
Welcome both of you.
Now, this is going to be an interesting verdict.
You guys, first, before I get to anything else, do you want to make a prediction?
Jury verdicts are very hard to predict.
Leo, we'll start with you.
Guilty?
I'm going to be consistent.
I'm going to be consistent with what I told you last night on your TV show.
I think he's guilty as said.
There's no hung jury because they got verdict, so I think he's guilty.
Greg Jarrett.
Yeah, I think the evidence of guilt was overwhelming.
Whether a jury would agree with that, you know, you just never know.
Sometimes juries engage in what's called jury nullification.
They realize the evidence points beyond a reasonable doubt to guilt, but they just don't like it.
They don't want to do it.
Maybe they like the defendant in some way.
And so they simply ignore the facts, they ignore the law, and they're empowered to do that.
Now, it's rare jury nullification, but it does happen.
But I think on balance, any honest, reasonable person who is paying close attention to the evidence, the facts, the testimony, you know, the text messages, the videotape surveillance would reach the inexorable conclusion that Jesse Smollett is guilty.
You know, this could, you know, depending on what the verdict is here, could come back to a lot of the Democrats in their rush to judgment.
Now, we do what we always do on this program, and both of you know my policy, and that is we don't rush to judgment.
We believe in the presumption of innocence.
You're innocent before being proven guilty in a court of law.
We had many presidential candidates, 2020 Democratic presidential candidates that weighed in on it, including Kamala Harris.
We'll get to her in a minute.
Corey Booker, you know, all expressing solidarity with Smollett at the time, both blasting the alleged attack as an attempted modern-day lynching.
And Biden also, a candidate at the time, tweeting, we are with you, Jussie, and that homophobia and racism have no place on our streets and in our hearts.
Bernie Sanders, the racist homophobic attack on Jesse Smollett is a horrific instance of surging hostility towards minorities around the country.
And it can go on from there.
Democrat Eric Swalwell, what happened to Jussie Smollett is vile and tragic.
Thankfully, he will recover, but hate crimes like this are happening more frequently.
Will there be consequences if, in fact, the verdict comes back guilty, Leo?
I think the verdict is necessary For there to be a guilty verdict.
Why?
Because Jesse Smollett represents everything that's bad about the system.
There are true victims of racism, anti-gay gay bashe.
Those people are basically on pins and needles, Sean, because there are true cases, real cases.
This guy was a fraud.
So he has to be found guilty of a hoax because legitimate cases are in jeopardy with guys like him.
And Greg Jarrett, look, again, none of us know, and we've said this before in previous cases that we've covered, and more recently, we were correct in our predictions.
But Smollett, you know, took the stand in the case.
How did you think he held up under Cross?
Any case involving race always tempts politicians, especially liberal politicians and their media collaborators to rush to judgment.
They didn't know the facts.
The facts had barely been dipped into when people like Kamala Harris pronounced it a modern-day lynching the same way Joe Biden smeared Kyle Rittenhouse as a white supremacist.
So, you know, that part of the equation is not unexpected.
They always do that.
Smollett, how did he hold up on cross-examination?
He did not hold up well.
In part because his story just didn't make sense.
It didn't match up with the surveillance.
It didn't match up with the text messages.
Well, talk about the surveillance in particular because the surveillance you're talking about is what, the day before the ran through the next day's events.
The surveillance tape that police presented to prosecutors who presented to the jury was what they called a dry runner dress rehearsal of the attack beforehand.
And it was compelling evidence of guilt.
And so, too, the fact that police were able to corroborate every aspect of the two brothers' story, who said Smollett paid them for the hoax.
That all matched up.
What didn't match up with Smollett's story?
He claimed the attackers were white.
The brothers certainly are not.
The defense attorney told the jury the brothers were indeed his clients' attackers.
So, you know, Smollett struggled to try to explain that.
And, you know, he sent text messages to the brothers stating he knew they were innocent.
That was construed as an attempt to get them to clam up.
You know, the prosecutor recited another message that one of the brothers testified to from Smollett, quote, I want you to attack me, but when you hit me, I want you to kind of pull your punches a bit.
Pull your punches, yeah.
Seriously hurt.
You know what I mean?
That's powerful stuff, you know, Sean.
And that tells a jury that this was a hoax.
When you look at the timeline, Leo, Smollett received the racist, homophobic, threatening letter at the studio in Chicago, where Empires filmed.
Police believe that Smollett sent the letter himself.
Smollett tells police he was attacked by two men, and Greg points out that were white.
In fact, they are not.
And police say Smollett, who is African-American and apparently, according to all reports, gay, that he told detectives the attackers yelled that he was in MAGA country, an apparent reference to President Trump's Make America Great Again.
Now, police say the investigation has shifted after detectives question the brothers.
And the follow-up is lawyers say he feels victimized, but you got the testimony of the two other men involved in this.
I don't see how you get a verdict anything other than guilty, but we'll see.
Here's the thing about it.
I mean, the letter to the studio did work.
The guy was making $100,000 per episode.
He's an ego mania, egomaniac, a narcissist.
And then basically, his whole strategy, and every Greg said it's spot on, but his whole strategy was to go after one or two jurors to make this a race case.
You know, his comment, I didn't go to the police because I'm a black man.
I don't trust the police.
I mean, it's just nonsense.
And then you have Black Lives Matter jumping into the hoop in the last 24 hours.
They support Jesse Smollett.
This guy is nothing more than a liar.
And what's going to happen is if the jury system works, vindication will come about and he will be found guilty.
And this is why this will serve as a deterrent to the left.
Well, they may not because they don't care if the truth is in play.
They don't deal with the truth.
They deal with lies.
But this will serve as a deterrent that you cannot go into a courtroom and lie.
And one final point, Sean.
His attorney should be up for some ethical charges because, let's face it, they had an obligation to make sure he didn't get up on that witness stand and lie.
And I think they knew.
So you got Joe Biden.
You got Kamala Harris and her tweet.
Jesse Smollett at Jesse Smollett is one of the kindest, most gentle human beings I know.
I'm praying for his quick recovery.
This was an attempted modern-day lynching.
No one should have to fear for their life because of the sexuality or the color of their skin.
We must confront this case.
Corey Booker, this vicious attack on Jesse Smollett was an attempted modern-day lynching.
I'm glad he's safe.
To those in Congress who don't feel the urgency to pass an anti-lynching bill designing lynching as a federal hate crime, I urge you to pay attention.
And we can add Al Sharpton.
As you mentioned, Black Lives Matter, their comments this week, the human rights campaign, time's up, all these groups.
You know, this is the risk of everybody always rushing to judgment, Greg Jarrett.
Yeah, it is.
And, you know, people should take the approach that you have consistently taken, Sean.
And that is let's wait till we get more information before we start opining as to what happened.
And you are always quick to point out that people are presumed innocent, that they, you know, will have their day in court.
But politicians, especially in a racially inflamed case, you know, love to prejudge and preordain the result.
And, of course, they end up embarrassing themselves a lot of the time.
And this is sort of a classic case of it.
Look, I mean, this thing didn't make sense from the beginning when Smollett said he was attacked by people who said, this is MAGA country.
Micah, MAGA.
I mean, that didn't make sense.
Out at 2 in the morning to get a Subway sandwich and attacked by people he knew who just happened to know at 2 in the morning who would be there.
This thing never added up.
And yet politicians ignored all of that.
I'm going to let you both go, but you'll both be joining me on Hannity tonight.
Leo 2.0 Terrell, Greg Jarrett, thank you.
We have Dave in Wisconsin.
Dave, you're on the Sean Hannity show as now everybody's making their way back into the courtroom for the reading of the verdict in the Smollett case.
What do you say, Dave?
What's on your mind?
Thanks for taking my call and thanks for all you do, Sean.
I'm curious, if he is found guilty, how would that not be considered a hate crime?
Since he made reference to MAGA, you know, Caucasian people.
How is that not reverse racism?
You know, you can call it whatever you want.
If you look, I've often said this, when people lie about other people, there's a reason it made the top 10 in terms of the Ten Commandments, not bearing false witness, because it's so damaging.
And I know people that this has happened to.
It's horrible.
It's absolutely horrible if somebody does that.
We'll find out soon what the jury thinks in this case, though.
Big time AJ, Houston, Texas.
What's going on, my friend?
Big time.
Big time, Sean Henned.
Hey, real quick.
Hey, I want to wish you a happy Thanksgiving.
And I want to say, ho, Merry Christmas to all the little kids and everybody at the Sean Hennedy Show.
Hope you have a merry, merry Christmas.
I think big time AJ is coming back to join us for a special program this year.
That's what I think.
Oh, that would be great, Sean.
That would be great.
That'll give us a little shiny and shiny in the country after all what Joe Biden and the crooks did in the country.
But now, to the idiot, he's guilty.
I mean, Sean, all we did to make race relations better until Obama got in there and messed it up.
And then after that, here come Biden messing it up worser and worser and worser.
And now, here, this guy going to try to pull that crap.
Sean, we worked hard to try to make America what it is.
And we don't need no racist.
We people, we God's people, man.
We don't need all that crap.
That is a bunch of baloney.
And he should be charged for what he did for false impersonation.
That's what that is.
And it's sickening to wait, you know, to know that somebody is doing that.
Look, I thought the evidence was pretty compelling, but I don't like to predict what juries are going to do.
I didn't like to do it in the case of Rittenhouse.
To me, the case was overwhelming and incontrovertible.
The jury took its time.
I thought the longer they were out, perhaps the worse it was getting for Rittenhouse.
But it was by state law in Wisconsin, by definition, self-defense.
All right, big time AJ.
I expect to speak to you soon.
Listen, let me warn my affiliates across the Sean Hannity Show Network that we are staying with our coverage.
We expect the verdict to be read any second now in the Josie Smollett hate hoax trial.
We're going to take calls in the meantime.
We have Trish is in West Virginia, 800-941.
Sean is on number if you want to weigh in.
What's up, Trish?
How are you?
I'm fine.
Thank you.
Thank you for taking my call, and I'll be quick.
Another gentleman that just stated what I called in to say, and that is this should be charged as a hate crime.
It is hate against the race.
It is hate against the political group.
It's a hate crime.
And I don't understand why it's not being charged as such.
Thank you so much for talking to me and have a wonderful day.
You have a wonderful day yourself.
Anyway, this is going to be interesting.
It's going to be very, very interesting because, you know, there's a reason why we are always right.
You know, how is it that we saw what was coming in the Rittenhouse case?
Right?
I mean, it was obvious when you went through each individual case, you see a kid running away from a crowd, a mob that's chasing him.
They tackle him to the ground.
A guy's about to stomp his foot into his face, into the pavement.
That's self-defense.
You have a case of another guy that is admitting that he pointed a loaded gun at Rittenhouse's head.
That's self-defense by anybody's definition.
And then the case, and it was on video of one guy with a horrific history of atrocious behavior, grabbing the rifle of Kyle Rittenhouse.
And still people think you just don't know which way the verdict's going to come back, even though by the very definition in the law in Wisconsin, it was crystal clear that this was acting within the law.
And it wasn't that hard to figure out.
You know, I'm looking at this timeline, and then what the police have been able to pick up here, police, you know, he tells police he was attacked, 2 a.m.
Actor says the men used racist, homophobic slurs, wrapped a rope around his neck, poured an unknown substance on him.
And the two people involved, he claimed, were white, as Leo pointed out.
It turns out that that was not the case.
And then we find out through, you know, that he did a dry run, as they call it, caught on surveillance video the day, one day before the alleged hate crime attack.
I mean, that's pretty compelling evidence.
And then, of course, the text messages and private messaging between him and the other two people involved that testified against him.
Let's go to Los Angeles.
We expect this verdict to be read any minute now.
Anyway, Will is in Los Angeles, K-E-I-B.
What's up, Will?
How are you?
Hi, good afternoon.
Yeah, I wanted to point out something.
I thought it was bleach that was said that was thrown on him.
And the thing about bleach is it freezes at 18 degrees.
So with the temperature at 20 below zero, what did they throw on him?
I don't remember the bleach allegation for some reason.
I just, you know, remember this happened three years ago.
Correct, yeah.
But there was a big deal about it, and I looked it up.
Bleach freezes at 18 degrees.
So if they threw bleach on him, they were throwing chunks of ice that would have cut him up and beat him up like he'd been hit with a hammer.
I don't know that part of it, but if you're right, then it's news and information I never had before.
I'll tell you that.
Well, it just furthers that this is kind of a story.
You know, it should have started with once upon a time instead of, you know, for real.
You know, Jesse Smollett said under oath, there was no hoax.
He said he was driving.
He said he was smoking a blunt and texting with a woman about an MSDNC appearance.
Then he testified the attack felt like looney tunes when he was attacked.
But then you got the testimony, pull your punches, and other things that were said.
It's just going to be interesting.
And, you know, I find the jury system as imperfect as it might be at times.
We've learned that through the Innocence Project, that, you know, people that are innocent are proven innocent after they spent decades in jail.
It's a great group.
Parry Sheck founded this years ago.
It's changed my opinion on the death penalty, considering so many people, because of new modern techniques with DNA evidence, they can find out the truth and veracity of some of the evidence, and they test it for DNA, and they find, oops, we made a mistake.
But if it's on videotape, that would be compelling enough for me.
But we're going to watch.
Look, there's a reason we've been right.
And this is the lesson I always say that I learned in the Richard Jewell case.
And that is I was on the air.
The AJC comes out, Atlanta Journal Constitution, fits the profile of the lone bomber because he lives with his mother.
And I remember saying on air, well, just because he lives with his mother doesn't make him a domestic terrorist.
I didn't know he was listening that day.
I found out later, and I got one of the first interviews with him.
And that has served us well with Ferguson.
We ended up being right because we had sources on the ground that said there were numerous eyewitnesses that confirmed the story of Officer Darren Wilson, that it was, in fact, Michael Brown reaching into the car and trying to grab the police officer's gun.
It was Michael Brown charging the police officer.
The same thing with Freddie Gray, Duke LaCrosse, UVA.
How is it we always end up being right?
Because we don't rush to judgment and we do our own fact-checking.
Something the media and these idiot politicians ought to start learning from.
All right, we'll take a quick break.
We'll come back.
We'll continue.
Oh, wait, we're almost at the end.
We're at the end of the show.
I'm not going to get the verdict on.
Darn it.
But what I'm hoping is, is that we'll have it for you tonight.
Anyway, so tune in tonight.
The verdict has been reached in the Justice Millette hate hoax trial.
My guess is I think it's going to come back guilty, but you never know.
We'll have the answer tonight, nine Eastern Setty DVR Hannity on Fox.
We'll see you then back here tomorrow.
We'll never forget you make this show possible.
Thanks for being with us.
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