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Just a chaotic, chaotic scene.
In its wake, a new kind of enemy emerged: terrorism.
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Day number two oh five.
Stay right here for our final news roundup and information overload.
All right, news roundup information overload hour, 800-941 Sean.
If you want to be a part of the program, um, with all the discussion about energy and energy independence and giving up energy independence, and and now we're still importing oil and energy from Russia, our NATO allies are doing the same, Western European allies are all doing the same.
It makes no sense.
And now finally they've they perhaps under pressure because most Americans, over 70 some odd percent of them, think we ought to produce our own energy and oil because they understand we have the resources to do so, but of course they cling to their their radical climate new Green Deal alarmism, socialism, redistribution is a model.
Uh and for some reason they would rather Mother Earth have the oil drilled in either Russia, Iran, the Middle East, OPEC nation, Saudi Arabia, or now we're even talking about Venezuela, rather than drill for our own oil.
Kamala Harris, the genius vice president that she is, actually suggested we're growing our economy and saving our environment at the same time.
Neither one of these statements are true.
We can connect all of our communities with affordable, accessible, and reliable public transportation.
We can address the climate crisis and grow our economy at the same time.
And I am here today to say, together, we all are doing just that.
Now she said, and she goes on to say, imagine all the heavy-duty vehicles producing zero emissions.
Imagine a future.
The freight trucks that deliver bread and milk to our grocery store shelves, and the buses that take children to school and and parents to work.
Imagine all the heavy-duty vehicles that keep our supply lines strong and allow our economy to grow.
Imagine that they produced zero emissions.
How about we need to get the oil now and provide for our Western European allies now?
You know, this is the same genius last week that explained this co this this very complex conflict that's going on when Russia invades Ukraine, and she explained it in a way that yeah, maybe a first grader would explain it.
Listen.
If you're watching any level of news, even social media, you're seeing everything that's going on right now in the Ukraine.
Break it down in layman's terms for people who don't understand what's going on and how can this directly affect the people of the United States.
So Ukraine is a country in Europe.
It exists next to another country called Russia.
Russia is a bigger country.
Russia is a powerful country.
Russia decided to invade a smaller country called Ukraine.
So basically that's wrong.
All right, joining us now to weigh in on what's been going on with the very latest.
We have Rebecca Koffler, former Defense Intelligence Agency Officer, uh wrote the bestseller Putin's playbook, Russia's Secret Plan to Defeat America, Daniel Hoffman, Fox News contributor, 30 years he was a CIA operations officer.
Uh a lot of that time dealing with the former Soviet Union and Russia.
Uh thank you both for being with us.
Um I said, Dan last week that I was very skeptical of what I thought were premature proclamations by some that that the insurgency of Ukrainians was in the end ultimately going to be effective.
Now that I see that this convoy really is stymied and they really did stop it.
And now that I see Putin so desperate that he's bombing civilians, he calls for a phony ceasefire.
People are headed to the you know bordering nations so that they can get the hell out of this war zone and he kill he's killing men, women and children.
And it seems like this the insurgency may be way more effective than I was giving credit for in the beginning.
When I saw the forty mile convoy, I said if that makes it to Kyiv, it's over.
It'll be a massacre.
It hasn't made it to Kyiv yet, which gives me hope.
Yeah, so we haven't quite reached that point even where Ukraine has started to fight an insurgency.
They're still they're still going toe to toe with the Russian military twelve days into this.
But you're right, the Russians are resorting to ever more indiscriminate attacks, especially from the air against uh civilian infrastructure, the nuclear power plant, for example, uh humanitarian corridors, neighborhoods, uh, and residences, hospitals.
That's my concern, Sean, frankly, that Ukraine will be turned into a scorched earth.
It passes prologue, Putin wants it to look like Grozny or Aleppo.
Well, that's a pretty chilling and frightening scenario, and he would have the firepower, I think, to to get there.
Uh one thing to add, they fired missiles at the second nuclear facility.
I mentioned it earlier in the program.
Um I have spoken to people that are in touch with their military um leaders, and they are claiming that they're doing much better than they they even they thought that they would do, but they desperately need javelins, they desperately need stinger missiles, they desperately need the West uh to get them the equipment and the missiles to fight back as soon as possible.
Uh, what's your take, Rebecca?
I was also uh surprised, Sean, and the ferocity with which um Ukrainians have been able to fight back against the Russian attack and Putin clearly has miscalculated the strength of the Ukrainian military.
Look, the Russian military is second only to that of the United States, and the fact that the Ukrainians are now able to hold off so bravely and so um vi valently is amazing.
Now, again, this shows the desperation of uh of Putin, the fact that he's uh absolutely slaughtering the civilians, but that part doesn't really surprise me.
He's just revealing for the rest of the world can't throw it all south.
Well, I the other thing I might take issue with, and and we don't really know, but I would I gotta believe that China probably is as big a military, has as much military might as Russia, maybe more.
Uh Dan, you might want to weigh in on that part.
To me, this is it the one thing that has to end is is the West dependence on energy because that's providing the funding for Putin for this war and this invasion.
Um now the solutions that I'm hearing bannered about don't seem particularly appealing to me, and this is a I've been discussing most of the day, and that is to make a nuclear deal with Iran that would provide them tens of billions of dollars that would be released, money that has been held uh in sanctions for for a long period of time.
Um, as part of the deal, I'm sure it's not going to be any place anytime inspections.
It probably is their pathway towards a nuclear weapon.
And thirdly, they're trying to try and negotiate a deal to import oil and energy from Iran.
Apparently they're even talking about going Biden going to Saudi Arabia.
They're also talking about even potentially I'm reading articles about having negotiations with Venezuela.
Now, all of that with the backdrop that America has energy independence and enough resources uh to produce all the energy we'd ever need and provide for our allies in the West, uh every need that they have.
And that's not even being discussed yet.
Yeah, Sean, we are in an existential point here uh in our war against Vladimir Putin, and I emphasize it's Putin's war, it's not Russia's war.
You know, the Russians don't want to be tied to China, they don't want to send their kids to China to go to school.
They want to send them out to the West.
Uh, they want to enjoy their vacations in the West.
Uh Vladimir Putin's war is not gonna be popular.
But I will tell you, historically, we drove a lot of nails into the evil empire Soviet confidence, and one of them was a drop in oil prices in the nineteen eighties.
And there's no question that if we can drop those oil prices and reduce our dependency on Russian oil and that and natural gas, uh, that we will deprive the Russians Of the money they need for their war machine.
It would seem to me that uh there's a moral and ethical component to this as well.
Well, I've been saying the same thing as well.
Uh we're seeing, and I don't know how real it is.
We're seeing that Russians are just getting out of their tanks and and surrendering.
Um we saw uh over the weekend nine Russian fighter jets taken out of the sky.
Apparently a number of helicopters have been shot out of the sky as well.
So I don't think uh Rebecca the Putin planned that we get these these reports about cities in Russia that are protesting this war.
Uh do you think he has the full support of the military?
Does he have the full support of the Russian people on this?
So clearly he doesn't have uh 100% of his military or of his uh people.
So and what we should be doing right now, Sean, to capitalize on those uh mil brave military uh men within the Russian uh army uh who are deserting or at least willing to stand up is we should be supporting them.
We should be running a psychological operation on Putin's uh military or Putin's apparatus, basically enticing more brave uh military Russians um from the Russian military to desert, have a place for them where we can you know help them out.
We are very good at psyops, and I don't understand why right now we're not using uh those capabilities.
Maybe Dan has something to say about that, but we definitely should be doing it right now.
Why is there a fear, Dan Hoffman, of putting in a no-fly zone in Ukraine, which Zelensky's been begging for?
Yeah, so that's a tough one.
I mean, throughout our history with Russia and the Soviet Union, uh we have engaged in a lot of proxy conflict, a lot of proxy wars.
You know, the Russians killed a lot of American troops in Vietnam, but not directly.
We did the same in Afghanistan.
We've never engaged directly in kinetic uh attacks against the Russians or Soviets, nor they against us out of concern that it would lead would lead to something far worse like a nuclear war.
So uh, you know, the bottom line for this is back in April when Russia was putting 70,000 troops on the border and they got a summit between President Biden and President Putin.
That's when we should have been supplying Ukraine with MiGs and javelins and harpoon anti-ship missiles and stingers and all those things that they are that they are in need of right now.
And we're playing catch up and trying to get those that military equipment into uh into Ukraine right now is just extraordinarily difficult.
I'll just add one last thing, Sean.
Vladimir Putin said that the collapse of the Soviet Union uh was the greatest geopolitical catastrophe in the twentieth century.
We all know how absolutely uh you know uh nonsensical that is.
But he's driving Russia right back to that point.
He's cratering their economy, making it look very Soviet to me.
He's got NATO as strong as we've ever been in response to his uh uh his brutal, unprovoked military attack against Ukraine, also a hallmark of uh of the Cold War.
So good on Vladimir Putin.
This is what he's got.
But we need to turn up the screws.
I think Rebecca's right, we need to do it really from the bully pulpit, from the president's resolute desk, not just from you know the PSYOP aspect of it.
Let's get the president out there calling out Russia for everything that they're doing, uh, all the attacks on innocent civilians and such.
All right, back to Rebecca Kopfler, former defense intelligence agency officer, Dan Hoffman, Fox News contributor, 30-year CIA ops officer.
What are the odds, Rebecca?
You know Putin better than anybody, and and you've studied this man your your entire career, uh, when people like me go on air and say that if you really want to end all of this, the best thing to do is is hope that somebody around Vladimir Putin, maybe a general advisor, takes him out and removes him by whatever means necessary.
And then we get Lindsey Graham saying the same thing, and I know for a fact that there'll be more people this week making such a proclamation.
My question to you is d is do you think he hears about that?
Is he aware of that?
And what psychological impact would it have on him?
And one hundred uh percent certain uh Sean that he hears about that from his intelligence advisor.
Now, um I assess that there's a very low likelihood that somebody actually from his inner circle is gonna uh rise up and uh think something like a coup because this this man is brutal.
Now, we have seen, you know, what happened in 1991, right?
And uh I don't rule out the possibility that there could be a group, you know, that is uh controlled from not controlled, but really uh from the supported by the West that could state something like that.
But he is very paranoid, and what I'm not certain about is whether because he's so scared, he would just uh unleash, you know, something like a nuclear warfare, which is he already brandishing, you know, threatening us with it.
So this means that.
If we're fighting proxy wars, and let me throw this to Dan.
Couldn't we provide Ukraine or a quote third party, the weaponry that could at least take a shot at where it w if we know his location?
I think that's yeah, probably a bridge too far.
Look, I I've always felt the bottom line is the Russian people need to realize this and take care of their own business.
They've got a lot more to fear from China than they do from NATO, defensive alliance.
If they were so genuinely, you know, terrified of Europe, I think they wouldn't be shopping there, parking their yachts there, buy expensive real estate there.
But when it comes to you know removing Vladimir Putin, the last thing we want to make it appear like is that it's a Western-driven initiative.
This has got to happen from Vladimir Putin's own inner circle where they have to realize that Vladimir Putin is spilling way too much price.
You of all people understand covert operations with plausible deniability.
That couldn't be done?
And there's time and a place for it, and it's got to be plausible, and there's got to be a policy in place that COVID action would support.
And uh we also don't go off assassinating foreign leaders either.
There's there's all sorts of regulations about that.
But there's executive order 1233 that prevents it.
Yeah, so I mean, again, this is we the way to make this happen is to is to make sure that Ukraine has the wherewithal to fight back and show that Vladimir Putin's uh strategy is not working, and his own people, his key people, I've mentioned this before, Minister of Defense Shoigu, uh director of the FSB, Patrashev and his national security advisor.
I'm sorry, director of uh FSB Bortnikov, National Security Advisor Patricev, that they'll all realize that this is going nowhere, and that they've got to do something about the leadership or the military stops taking orders uh to commit, you know, uh war crimes.
You commit war crimes and kill civilians.
Uh Rebecca, thank you.
Dan Hoffman, thank you.
800-941 Sean, our number you want to be a part of the program this Monday.
We got a great handy tonight at nine.
Quick break right back.
Your calls on the other side, straight ahead, when fake news gives you lies, Hannity supplies the truth.
Sean Hannity is on right now.
All right, 25 now to the top of the hour, 800-941 Sean.
If you want to be a part of the program, you know, it's amazing the reaction we got uh, I guess it was two, three weeks ago when we found the tape of Donald Trump, and I can't believe there was a tape that existed, without any notes, and he's got I think K. Bailey Hutchinson, General Kelly uh uh to his right, Mike Pompeo to his left.
Um I I could tell that Kelly and and Kay Bailey were like, oh my gosh, I can't believe what this is happening.
And Pompeo was enjoying every second of it because I've known Mike for many years, and Mike's tough as nails.
And Donald Trump just gets right in the face of the head of NATO and spells out for them how stupid they are, how idiotic they are, how dumb it is for us, we, the American people, to be paying more in terms of gross domestic product produ uh uh product GDP.
We're paying more than all of these other countries in the NATO alliance, and and they're not even paying their fair share, like Germany, for example, and he pointed out Germany, and it's supposedly money to prevent to help protect them against Russia,
and yet they're turning around on the other side uh as people not paying their fair share, but then doing the opposite, doing billion dollar energy deals with Vladimir Putin, making Putin richer and tougher and being more reliant on Putin.
And he just laid him out.
And it really goes to the heart of why we are where we are today, in my view.
Uh listener, this goes on for a little bit, but it's really worth listening to again.
Listen.
Well, I have to say I think uh it's very sad when Germany makes a massive oil and gas deal with Russia, where you're supposed to be guarding against Russia, and Germany goes out and pays billions and billions of dollars a year to Russia.
So we're protecting Germany, we're protecting France, we're protecting all of these countries, and then numerous of the countries go out and make a pipeline deal with Russia, where they're paying billions of dollars into the coffers of Russia.
So we're supposed to protect you against Russia, but they're paying billions of dollars to Russia, and I think that's very inappropriate.
And the former Chancellor of Germany is the head of the pipeline company that's supplying the gas.
Uh ultimately Germany will have almost 70% of their country controlled by Russia with natural gas.
So you tell me, is that appropriate?
I mean, we've I've been complaining about this from the time I got in.
It should have never been allowed to have happened.
But Germany is totally controlled by Russia because they were getting from 60 to 70 percent of their energy from Russia and a new pipeline.
And you tell me if that's appropriate, because I think it's not, and I think it's a very bad thing for NATO, and I don't think it should have happened, and I think we have to talk to Germany about it.
On top of that, Germany is just paying a little bit over one percent.
Whereas the United States, in actual numbers, is paying 4.2% of a much larger GDP.
So I think that's inappropriate also.
You know, we're protecting Germany, we're protecting France, we're protecting everybody, and yet we're paying a lot of money to protect.
Now, this has been going on for decades.
This has been brought up by other presidents, but other presidents never did anything about it because I don't think they understood it, or they just didn't want to get involved.
But I have to bring it up because I think it's very unfair to our country, it's very unfair to our taxpayer, and I think that these countries have to step it up, not over a 10-year period, they have to step it up immediately.
Germany is a rich country.
They talk about they're gonna increase it a tiny bit by 2030.
Well, they could increase it immediately tomorrow and have no problem.
I don't think it's fair to the United States.
So we're gonna have to do something because we're not gonna put up with it.
We can't put up with it, and it's inappropriate.
So we have to talk about the billions and billions of dollars that's being paid to the country that we're supposed to be protecting you against.
You know, everybody's everybody's talking about it all over the world.
They'll say, Well, wait a minute, we're supposed to be protecting you from Russia, but why are you paying billions of dollars to Russia for energy?
Why are countries in NATO, namely Germany, having a large percentage of their energy needs paid, you know, to Russia and taken care of by Russia.
Now, if you look at it, Germany is a captive of Russia because they supply they get rid of their coal plants, they got rid of their nuclear, they're getting so much of the oil and gas from Russia.
I think it's something that NATO has to look at.
I think it's very inappropriate.
You and I agree that it's inappropriate.
I don't know what you can do about it now, but it certainly doesn't seem to make sense that they pay billions of dollars to Russia, and now we have to defend them against Russia.
So pretty amazing how dead on accurate Trump was.
Um I actually went back also and I found all interviews of Donald Trump the candidate in 2016, and and and the questions that I repeatedly was asking him about energy independence, and is his answers were dead on accurate.
You know, once again, it is amazing how often that he turns out to be right and everybody else turns out to be so wrong on so many important issues of our time.
And it's such a shame because these are things that actually matter in terms of peace, America security.
For example, I'll give you a few examples.
In February of 2016, long time before the election, I say I said to him, my question was You say a million plus jobs could be created through energy independence.
He Answers, yeah, at least.
These are all things you've said.
He said, Yeah, I keep saying it.
I've been saying it.
Uh and I said, how and he goes, for years I've been saying it.
I think a lot of people want this question, and maybe this goes to the heart of your popularity.
How fast can Donald Trump the businessman get taxes lower?
Uh the repatriated money back.
I think we're talking about Iraq on that point, energy independence, and a balanced budget that I think everybody here wants.
And then he went in to give an answer.
I asked him on March 7th.
I interviewed him again.
Uh about the single number one question I get about you, tell me where Donald Trump is conservative.
Explain to me how he'll be a conservative, Hannity.
And I asked him.
I'm asking you.
I'm giving you the opportunity to explain to people your your political philosophy.
And then he went on to explain it.
Uh on March 9th, I asked him an energy independence, the number of jobs that would be created.
He goes on and on about energy independence in April 13th of 2016.
My question is, how quickly could we be an energy independent country?
He says, Well, very quickly.
We have the technology that allows us to do these things.
As an example, in this state, they have decimated the coal mines.
They've decimated your workers.
Um it might have been Ohio, I'm not sure.
They decimated, you know, clean energy, clean coal.
And you know what we do?
First of all, the mines are almost they're gonna be gone, they're gonna be extinct, and they shouldn't be.
Coal is great.
He went on to say that then.
I asked him another question.
I said, you know, we're the Saudi Arabia of natural gas.
We have more than any other country.
We have so much more, he said.
And then he said, we should have everything.
We should have everything, including renewables.
Look at the problem with the renewables.
Look, I know there are a lot of renewables that uh that than any human on earth, because I understand where it's from.
And then he says, I love solar, solar's great.
The problem is it's a 30-year payback.
It's not practical.
He's a businessman.
And I asked him on May 4th the same question, and I asked him on May 18th a similar questions about energy independence, and I asked him on July 4th of 2016 about energy independence, and I asked him about asked him about it on August 9th of 2016 and September 23rd of 2016.
And I asked him December 1st, before he became president in 2016, after he won the election.
Energy independence.
How long after you studied and looked at it?
Because I see millions of potential good paying career jobs for people.
He said, right.
And he says it's a huge thing, it's a huge part of our agenda.
We have so much energy we never knew about.
And modern technology starting what about six years ago, has been incredible.
We're sitting on a vast amount of wealth.
And we have more than Saudi Arabia.
We have more than countries that you'd never believe it's even possible, and now we're gonna start using it.
Those were all interviews I had with Donald Trump.
If you don't believe me, I can play it.
I gave you the dates if you want to go back and look at the transcripts.
Anyway, 800-941 Sean, if you want to be a part of the program, uh Ramon is in Georgia.
What's up, Ramon?
How are you, sir?
Hey, Sean, uh 100% with you about the oil and but you know, apparently we don't have to worry about that, and by the way, I love Trump.
Um, but we don't have to worry about that because apparently Circleback said that uh I think it was last week in a press conference, said that uh only 10% of our oil comes from Russia.
So in effect, basically we're just slaughtering, destroying and leveling 10% of Ukraine.
So I guess that's fine.
Um, you know, how when did this stop?
And this is the question is like, so they take over Ukraine.
Okay, I guess Putin has this little magic wand with the you know, hey, I got nukes, I got nukes, you can't touch me.
Stay away.
I'm gonna take over Ukraine.
I'm gonna slaughter this place.
And then from there, what is it in?
Does it go to Poland?
Is it because of NATO countries?
That's the question, Sean.
It's not that you it's not that Ukraine is a weak country.
I mean, if you go to the Budapest agreement, um, after they seceded, and they they were the third largest nuclear power in the world.
And then they had bilateral talks with Russia at the time, and they weren't going anywhere.
America was brought into it for trilateral discussions, and we made a deal that they would hand over their nuclear weapons and they'd give them To Russia, Russia would destroy them.
And in exchange, they were guaranteed security from the United States, the UK, and Russia.
So how did that work out for him?
Not very well.
Not very well.
No, I'm saying that our leadership here is playing up game with Russia just because they waved this little flag that they've got new.
Well, for that matter, they can just take over the rest of the world.
We got news.
You can't do anything about it.
We're just going to take over.
So that's the first thing.
Look, if you're talking about you're talking about weakness, and weakness incurs aggression every time.
Exact.
And the fact that it happened during Obama and Biden, but didn't happen during Trump, and now happens again under Biden does not surprise me.
Exactly.
And frankly, I I I we ought to start the countdown clock until China takes Taiwan, because that's coming next.
And after that, God only knows.
No, I wish I was wrong.
Anyway, Ramon, thank you.
Appreciate the call.
Uh Kentucky, we have Dan next.
Sean Hannity show.
Thank you, Sean, for having me on.
Really appreciate it.
Love everything you do.
Keep up the good fight.
I just wanted to make a point.
I agree with everything you guys are saying about the natural gas and oil.
I mean, we're in a uh paving business and we use a lot of uh a lot of natural gas, a lot of oil, and it's gonna really affect our business.
But the uh the big thing I worry about is just nuclear war.
I mean, you know, child of cold war.
You know, I I've seen the day after I I understand the danger that's out there, and I just worry about Putin being uh being backed into a corner.
I mean, I don't I agree with Gingrich earlier.
I don't think he's gonna win.
Um, you know, no matter how many cities he takes, um, there's gonna be a there's already a guerrilla war being fought, and you know, he's he's gonna be backed into a corner, so but I guess I wanted your your opinion uh why isn't everybody on China more?
China's in the perfect position to negotiate an off ramp for him.
I mean, because uh my opinion, I think that Russia and China have formed uh a very strong alliance in light of American weakness, and I think part of that alliance is sure, we'll let you take Ukraine.
We'll we'll complain and on a very low minor level, but we'll protect you in the UN, and then when we take Taiwan, you're gonna shut your mouth and there'll be reciprocity.
That's what I think.
I kinda but I kind of think that you know China would have expected this to go better as well, and I just wonder if they they worry about his uh state of mind a little bit, because I mean I for I thought the same thing.
I thought, well, why wouldn't they take Taiwan with uh with all the weakness we have going on in this country?
Uh but seeing how that's turning out here, it's uh I know they're kind of waiting back to see, but uh, I mean, do you share the same uh same concerns about you know Putin being a madman and whether or not he's gonna you know uh I mean you always have to worry about that.
You know, look, it's even biblical.
Uh I I I won't I won't ever venture a guest to fully understand or or imply that I really understand the book of Revelation and the Bible, but um if not for God's intervention, uh there's gonna not gonna be a a safe place to stand on the entire earth.
Uh so doesn't it sounds like a pretty chilling scenario, but listen, there are evil people.
And it's in the last century we can lose a hundred million human souls, Mao, China, Stalin, Russia, Nazism, Fascism, Imperial Japan.
And if we can lose a million, a hundred million people then.
What would what why would we think otherwise that we couldn't lose a similar number of people or even more?
And would it play out differently?
Yeah, probably would.
Is it a scary and chilly s chilling scenario?
Yeah.
Is weakness the answer?
Uh do we allow him to hold us hostage?
You can't.
You just can't.
It mutually assured destruction has to be the answer.
Uh and now we're back to that.
Anyway, thanks for the call.
Appreciate it.
Right, that's gonna wrap things up for today.
Uh now we have Vladimir Putin targeting innocent men, women, and children when he said he wouldn't.
Is there any chance that a real ceasefire can get in place?
Uh Biden's disaster is begging and pleading and negotiating with Iran and Venezuela and Saudi Arabia and OPEC.
It is just pathetic.
We'll get into that and news you'll never get from the mob.
Nine Eastern Tonight on Hannity.
We'll see you then back here tomorrow.
Thank you for making this show possible.
Thank you.
December 29th, 1975, LaGuardia Airport.
The holiday rush.
Parents hauling luggage, kids gripping their new Christmas toys.