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May 5, 2022 - Sean Hannity Show
31:39
Jason Chaffetz - May 4th, Hour 3
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All right, news roundup, information overload hour, 800-941-Sean, if you want to be a part of the program.
We're going to bring in Jason Chaffetz, friend of ours, and Fox News contributor, distinguished fellow at the Government Accountability Institute.
They came up with incredible information that they have uncovered through the Freedom of Information Act.
The Government Accountability Institute obtained the company's application to a program as it relates to Stacey Abrams.
And despite her claim to have walled herself off from business, anyway, the application submitted to the state by the company lists Stacey Abrams as a key manager of the company and provides a one-page biography.
Now, if you go back to when she ran for governor in Georgia in 2018, her net worth was $109,000.
In the interim, her net worth now, according to the Associated Press, is $3,3.17 million.
So the question is, how did she make all that money?
Back then, she was reporting liabilities, including $54,000 that she owed the IRS, $96,000 in student loan debt, $83,000 in credit card balances.
All of these things apparently now have been paid off here.
It's pretty unbelievable.
And by the way, for all the people that say, oh, Donald Trump, you know, he talks about election fraud.
This is really bad.
It's so bad.
Stacey Abrams still has not conceded the 2018 gubernatorial race in Georgia.
They stole it from the voters in Georgia.
Okay.
Anyway, so she leveraged her public service and state government, according to the Government Accountability Institute, to make millions of dollars for a company she partially owned, according to this new research.
And her company, NOW Corp, received special treatment, apparently, from a Georgia State Department that administered federal funds despite her assurances in 2018 during her run for governor that she had walled herself off from the company while she was the leader of the Democratic Party in the state legislature.
Jason Chaffetz, who did this investigative report and posted it on Foxnews.com, it's very detailed, very extensive.
As always, joins us now.
How are you?
Great, great.
Whenever you see a publicly elected official suddenly have a massive increase in their net worth at the same time, they're claiming that, oh, no, I'm not involved in any private business.
It just makes me scratch my head and think, oh, really?
Let's go see if that's true.
Okay, walk us through so people fully understand.
Start from the beginning.
So there was a company.
It's called the Now, NOW Accounts.
It wasn't doing very well.
It was struggling.
But President Obama passes a bill.
He gets supportive, passes a bill.
There's $1.5 billion that go out to these various state entities.
The problem was in the state of Georgia, she got some special treatment because even though she said she was walled off, they filled out applications and created a program that wasn't available in other states.
And she tried to evidently duplicate this in other states, but it didn't happen in other states.
And in fact, one of the telltale signs here is they have now discontinued this program.
And it was basically a loan guarantee.
She was able to, this now corporation was able to act as if it was a private lender.
So they would buy accounts receivable.
So they'd go to a company and say, you've got this long list of accounts receivable.
Let us manage that.
We'll take a fee.
But what she was able to do was use the government as a backstop to guarantee those loans.
So there was no risk.
And so they were able to then go, and this is based on a Harvard Business Review that Government Accountability Institute purchased.
You couldn't just go get it, but we had to purchase it.
They purchased this Harvard Business Review, and they admit out loud, they say, quote, allows us to scale faster because the government is in the first lost position, not our lenders.
So it was a government guarantee that she was taking it.
By the way, for people that don't understand, first position, when you're talking about investment money or loaning money to a company, usually banking financial institutions demand to be put in first place if they're going to lend the money.
In other words, if a company then goes bankrupt, okay, they sell their assets.
They want to get their money back first.
And as far as everybody else that might have invested, they don't really care that much about them.
They want their money, period, end of sentence, correct?
Yes.
And so what this does is the government was in the first loss position.
So they would be, they're the ones, it's the taxpayers that ended up having to pay this.
The money essentially went through to this corporation, and that's how these people were making a lot of money.
Okay, so it's a rags to riches story.
And I know Peter Schweitzer and Eric Eggers, they're regulars on this program as well.
And I know you did it on the podcast.
And I'm reading through all of this.
Let's go through their business model.
So their business was to purchase receivables at 97 cents on the dollar.
Okay.
And this is from businesses that have not yet paid for services provided.
So explain that aspect of it.
So there were hundreds of companies, and they would go through and they would look at their accounts receivable.
Again, they maybe have not even performed the services yet, but they know they're going to collect on these.
At least they think they're going to.
But the problem is, Sean, as they go through this, the entity funded by Private Equity, which was the Small Business Credit Cooperative, SBCC, it reported three times the amount in loan defaults as the other entity, which was called Trade Credit Guarantee Corporation, which was funded by the nonprofit credit union.
So some would say, oh, well, that's because it was more risky and that sort of thing.
But look, the bottom line is she campaigns on the idea that she, quote, putting money back in the pockets of families, end quotes.
But no, she went to the taxpayers, got special treatment as an elected official, and that money ended up going in her pocket in part.
Not all of it, but in part.
How were you able to get this information?
I know through the Freedom of Information Act.
How did this go unnoticed for such a long period of time here?
Because, you know, what they're doing is they ostensibly is lending businesses money for invoices for which businesses were waiting payment for, and their account secured state contracts that allowed it to use federal taxpayer dollars to replenish loans left unpaid.
In other words, they're not taking any of the risk here, as previously reported by the Atlanta Journal Constitution.
Now, since your report has come out, has there been any interest or follow-up from the AJC?
Well, they should because they told the Atlantic Journal of Constitution that she, quote, walled myself off of this relationship.
But it doesn't appear she does because in the application, she's listed as a key manager.
And so when you're going out to get a grant, they want to see who's involved and who's engaged.
Well, she just happens to be a very prominent member of the Georgia State Legislature.
What do you think that person is going to do when it shows up before and it lands on their desk?
But she's telling the public, I was walled myself off.
And they kind of scrubbed the website, by the way.
It didn't used to be that way.
But you go to the website now, you can't find her.
But, you know, there are ways on the internet to go back and look at where it has been in the past.
And she was obviously intimately involved in this.
She wouldn't have been a key manager if that was the case.
Why did Harvard Business School do a case study on this scheme, as they call it?
I don't know why they were able to do it, but obviously they got participation from the NOW corporation as well as the private equity that came in.
Because remember, this organization was struggling, but they got tens of millions of dollars in private equity because I think private equity was looking at, say, wait, you've got a guarantee from the government?
We're not going to lose money here.
And so they poured tens of millions of dollars into it, but they also answered the questions from Harvard.
And again, part of what the Government Accountability Institute did is purchase that report and get it.
So this is an amazing thing.
So Stacey Abrams Company, NOW Account, they set up, by the way, as two entities, nonprofits, the purpose of which is to lend money to businesses that are supposedly awaiting payment.
And in many instances, the people don't pay the money back.
And when the money was not paid back, they had a guarantee from the government, the state government, I assume, in Georgia, that their losses would be reimbursed by the taxpayer.
Why would the taxpayer ever be on the hook for this type of money?
Well, it came from a grant from the federal government, but the state set up this program.
Now, she happened to be the only, and I say she, the NOW organization, or now, was the only one that qualified and got it, as best we can tell.
And look, bottom line is, I think there are a lot more questions than answers at this point when she denied any involvement, but she clearly filled out a form and had her as the key manager.
When her net worth rises so rapidly, the excuse was, well, she's doing a lot of speaking gigs and, you know, she got a book deal.
But when you've got $80 plus thousand dollars in credit card debt and now you're worth millions of dollars while she was running for, you know, she was running for governor.
She never stopped running for governor.
All of this happened magically.
Come on, she's got a lot more questions to answer.
So the reality is, is it one of those issues that can actually, that the average person is going to be able to comprehend, let's say, I don't know if it's going to be Kemp or David Perdue, whoever wins that gubernatorial Senate primary, sorry, gubernatorial primary, whoever wins that primary now will be going up against Stacey Abrams.
Now the question is, how do you make this an issue in the campaign in a way that people can understand it?
Because it gets a little bit in the weeds.
You have to really read deep.
I actually read your piece twice before I fully understood it.
I mean, it does get to be a little bit complicated.
I think the simple top line questions that she's going to have to answer in any context is why did she receive special treatment related to her private business while she was an elected official?
Well, it's a pretty incredible discovery that you have here.
Let's see if the rest of the mob and the media does their job and digs down deep because if it was a Republican, we know that that would happen.
Anyway, great work.
As always, Fox News contributor, distinguished fellow at the Government Accountability Institute, our friend Jason Chaffetz.
Great work, sir.
Thank you for being with us.
Thanks, Sean.
All right, quick break.
We'll hit the phones when we get back.
800-941-Sean, our number.
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Let's get to our phones here.
We got Cheryl is in California.
Cheryl, where in California are you?
Hi.
Yes, I just wanted to agree with you and reiterate something that I think is a very nuanced issue that is not brought up enough.
The whole abortion topic is so much more complicated.
And the media and all of the loud voices like to make it a black and white issue.
I've been in medicine for 20-something years as a nurse.
And when especially you talk about things like late term, doctors aren't performing those abortions because they want to.
Those are children that are dying.
Those are mothers that are dying.
Or their quality of life would be so subpar.
And I would just encourage people to place themselves in the shoes of the parents.
Would that be something that you would want to force someone to deliver only to see the sadness?
Or consider that perhaps the kindness is the better option in some cases.
No, I don't agree that it's a form.
But I think the left has effectively sort of rendered, they've just, they don't refer to it as a life.
And at some point, you know, when you have a beating heartbeat, certainly in the final trimester and even in the second trimester, at some point, that child living inside a woman's womb is viable outside the womb, especially with the advancement of medical technology.
Is that correct?
Sometimes, yes.
Yeah.
So the question is.
Children can sadly be born without major organs that allows their heart to beat, but their brains are not there or their organs are not where they should be.
But yes, you are correct.
But there's a certain point where the child is viable outside of the womb.
Correct?
Potentially.
Okay.
And certainly third trimester abortions, some of those kids can be completely saved and live their lives happily, correct?
I do say some because it is not a true.
I totally understand that.
All right.
It's not hard and fast.
Yeah.
And I think that's what people forget is there are cases where there is a potential option that perhaps a family who is better equipped to handle a very high-speed person, but some of you.
Your heart comes through loud and clear.
And I think there's a certain hardness of heart as it relates to people's callousness about what it is that the beauty that is actually birth and a child being born and what is inside a woman's womb.
Anyway, I appreciate it.
800-941 Sean is our number if you want to be a part of the program.
I'm 25 to the top of the hour, 800-941.
Sean, if you want to join us, Mother's Day Sunday.
And some people have been requesting autographed copies of my book, Live Free or Die.
We have them up on Hannity.com.
Great gift for Mother's Day for all the moms in your life.
If you're looking for something different, if they like this show, they like Hannity the TV show.
And it's personally, yes, autographed by yours truly.
That would be me for Mother's Day.
And Linda.
Can I just jump in?
You know what?
I need a free copy because I didn't get a signed copy.
I got all the other copies to get everybody else to help them get their signed copy.
But in all seriousness, you know, I get asked all the time for swag, for autographs of you.
People want stuff.
And I know you hate doing this.
And you're, you know, you're a little, it's ironic.
You're actually shy when it comes to talking about your book and stuff.
But it really is one of those books that was so monumental, you know, in wake of the election, looking out at this big brother government, which obviously with the Ministry of Truth or Disinformation Governance Board or whatever they want to call it.
I mean, your chapter four of Live for Your Die is exactly that.
Like socialism doesn't work.
It just doesn't.
And there's so much of that in this book.
And I think it's just so enlightening.
And, you know, if you've got a mom out there who, you know, really enjoys reading about history, the legacy of our nation, how it intertwines with that of other nations, and you want to give her something different than just like, you know, you're a great mom, mug or shirt or roses.
You want to give her something a little extra, you know, for the patriot mom in your life?
I would love it.
So I think it would be something really nice.
You just go to Hannity.com.
You can check it out.
Get your copy today.
It's autographed.
It's ready to go.
And you'll have it in time for Mother's Day.
So now we have a second comedian I mentioned earlier.
Dave Chappelle was attacked on stage in LA.
I guess after some woke activist tried to cancel him over trans jokes.
Apparently, Jamie Foxx rushed in to help.
Chris Rock was there, came on stage after and started joking.
Hey, was that Will Smith?
Which is pretty funny on the part.
Which, unfortunately, right, he set a precedent.
I mean, ironically, Sean, we talked about this.
And you were like, you know, you know my sensei.
I know.
And what people probably don't know is when I'm on stage, off stage, there are people waiting just in case something happens.
And there are people that I train with.
And I try not to put myself in an environment where I just try to be safe.
And I'm very safe in terms of where I go because people are crazy now.
They're nuts.
And they also have no accountability.
There's no personal responsibility.
Nobody's allowed to say anything.
Everybody has to agree.
We're all tolerant until we have our own unique thoughts.
I mean, I just don't even understand what is considered acceptable anymore.
Like I would never in my life jump on top of someone, try to hurt them, try to assault them because I didn't agree with them.
That's just not who we are as a nation.
It's just unbelievable.
And it's sad.
It really is sad.
I mean, this guy's telling jokes.
You don't like his jokes?
Don't go.
Don't buy the ticket.
Stay home.
Go to another show.
Be in your own echo chamber.
Go there.
I just don't understand.
Like, he has a right to say what he wants, go up on stage.
People have a right to buy the tickets and listen to him.
Just let him do his thing.
Yeah.
Look, I happen to like Dave Chappelle and I happen to like Dave.
God is hilarious.
He's so funny.
I don't understand.
If you cannot stay, if you don't like comedians that make fun of everybody, listen, the only reason, and I only saw clips of it, I didn't see the whole thing, but the clips I saw of Trevor Noah, I've never once thought this guy was funny, ever.
I mean, and people would send me bits that he does about me, and I look at it and I'm like, it's not even funny.
I wish it was funny.
And the reason that he was funny in terms of what I was able to see, the clips that I saw, because I'm not going to a White House correspondence dinner, I've never been to one.
I never will go to one.
I'd rather, you know, be shot 50 times before a firing squad.
And anyway, I just have no interest in being around them.
And I know the people in that room hate me.
And I just don't feel like wasting my time with these people.
But the reason that I thought he was funny is because I could see he went after Fox.
He went after CNN.
He went after CNN Plus, which is funny.
He went after Republicans.
He went after Trump.
He went after Biden, who was sitting right there, you know, dumbfounded.
And Biden starts laughing.
Everything's gone up with Joe.
Inflation's through the roof, this through the roof.
And Joe's laughing.
Ha ha ha.
It's not impacting him.
I thought his reaction should have been a little bit more muted, but that was my take.
But this is what made the old comics, this is what made Johnny Carson Johnny Carson.
This is what made Jay Leno so successful.
The reason Jay Leno kicked Letterman's ass in the end is because Jay Leno was an equal opportunity comedian.
He just wanted kicks and giggles.
He wanted people to laugh.
Well, we all know, I mean, Letterman was a raging liberal.
So, I mean, it's like he got worse over time.
Oh, my God.
I mean, it was, he, he had biting humor, a little bit different than Jay Leno, very stylistically different, but there was a time when their ratings were very close.
And then slowly but surely, Leno pulled away, and it wasn't close in the end.
The reason that Fallon and Kimmel and Stephen Colbert, who I think is the worst, the reason their ratings totally suck, I mean, especially compared to even Letterman and Leno, is because they're so hyper-partisan that they basically have alienated half the country.
It's like you know what's funny, Sean?
And I got to say, Stephen Colbert is a perfect example of this.
So Stephen Colbert, when he was pretending to be an anchor and not taking himself so seriously, I actually thought he was very funny when he was doing the daily show and he was on Comedy Central and it was just all about, you know, getting a laugh.
And then when he became a late night host and thought and thinks, in my opinion, I think he thinks of himself very highly.
He thinks he's a very important person.
You know, he's the kind of person who walks into a room and goes, do you know who I am?
You know, I'm just not.
The show was dying.
It's terrible.
He started attacking Trump.
But let me tell you something.
People will jump on the dog that everybody else is jumping on because they don't want to be in the line of fire.
They would rather just have that groupthink mentality, jump on board.
Nobody wants to be the next target.
Nobody wants to think outside the box.
That's why people like Elon Musk, Joe Rogan, they're sort of like, they're setting a tone here.
Like, we're successful.
We have our own opinions.
We don't need you guys, which in the political world is the same thing with like an Oz or a Trump, right?
People who don't need the lobbyists.
We don't need your money.
We can do it our way.
And I think that's why we're getting these standalone, these outliers that are coming in and saying, you know, this doesn't work anymore.
This doesn't, people can't laugh anymore.
Let me tie this to today's news.
Because now we have Biden's deplorable moment, you know, irredeemable, deplorables, Hillary Clinton, or, you know, Peter Strzzok's, you know, smelly Trump Walmart choppers or Barack Obama, you know, bitter Americans clinging to their guns, their Bibles and their religion, et cetera.
And Biden saying the MAGA crowd is the most extreme political organization that existed in recent American history.
It's the same thing.
You're alienating half the country.
And it's like, okay, well, you don't want me here.
And then I had all the governors all over the country begging me to move.
Unfortunately, my contract has locked me into this shiff hole of a city that I hate and want no part of anymore.
And I'm getting robbed blind every day.
And it's frustrating, to say the least.
So I just think that this, there is a contempt out there for half the country.
And Dave Chappelle is funny.
Chris Rock is funny.
Trevor Knower, at least from what I saw at that event, was funny.
And I just, these guys, at some point, somebody's going to learn that politics, it's sort of like taking a knee in football.
It's the same thing.
And it's like if you want to destroy a game, you got the most unifying event in the world, and then you bring politics into it.
So stupid.
You know, let people want to get away from their day-to-day crap.
And that's the same thing for music.
Same thing.
Yeah, same thing.
I mean, and then the musicians get all political.
I don't care what you think.
I just want you to play your music.
Play your music.
Stop talking so much.
Just play the music.
Thank you very much.
The pros do.
The people that have been around.
I agree with you 100%.
They keep it to themselves.
They do their jobs.
If they have philanthropic efforts, they do it on the side.
They don't need all the accolades.
You know, like I went to a YouTube concert.
I was so disappointed.
And I guess I should have expected it because I like them.
Yeah.
I mean, I knew he was a raging liberal.
I mean, don't get me wrong, but it was so egregious in the concert.
I was like, wow, this is like next level.
At that point, I couldn't even get through it.
It takes the fun away from it.
And people don't go to concerts to get a lecture from a rock star.
That's correct.
Anyway, let's get to our phones.
Sabrina is in Florida.
Sabrina, you're on the Sean Hannity show.
Glad you called.
Hi, Sean.
I just want to make a couple of points real quick.
Number one, timing.
So this leak could not have been timed better for the Democrats.
And that, I think, is why it was orchestrated.
And I think the American public need to wake up and see that every one of these little ploys are going to backfire on the Democrats.
We have to make sure, as Republicans and Independents, that the public sees the other side and what they're doing.
It's very, very important.
The timing of this is perfect.
It's perfect, but it's not because, you know, the American people, if this decision comes out, whenever it comes out, probably in June, and it stays the same, by that point, the American people, the reasonable people, in the latest box poll, 70% of independents don't have a high opinion of Joe Biden.
That is a dramatic shift.
He's losing young people.
He's losing African Americans.
He's losing Hispanic Americans.
There's nothing you can point to as a success.
Abortion might motivate a small part of the Democratic base come November, but it's not the defining issue because Americans will figure out the average people, not the activists, they will understand that states are going to make that decision.
And this is the federal government allowing elected officials, representatives in the states to make those decisions for them rather than having this big, broad, blanket, big government decision that people need to abide by.
And then you'll have very liberal states with very liberal abortion laws.
And then you'll have more conservative states that put more restrictions in place.
Probably not that onerous.
My guess is the average will be the Mississippi law of 15 weeks.
That's my guess.
That's almost four months into a pregnancy.
That's a long time.
Anyway, Sabrina, thank you.
Philip is in Texas.
Hey, Philip, how are you?
I'm wonderful.
It's an honor.
Honor is all mine.
What's on your mind?
Well, I was listening to the show yesterday, and you had defined what your definition of being a conservative was.
And I agreed with everything you said, but you left out, I think, one very, very important thing.
What's that?
Well, to be a conservative, you have to conserve something.
Okay.
And you said you'd like to have taxes down, but if the government keeps spending money, we're not saving things.
So I think we have to have a balanced budget.
I'm for a balanced budget.
But we're so far away from that reality.
I just, it's on the list.
It's just at this point in time, I would want to grow the economy.
The best way to grow the economy is to have lower taxes, less regulation.
Energy independence is a big part of it.
We can't be involved in these endless wars.
It's unfortunate that we're going to have to provide the military aid we're providing Ukraine, but it's more unfortunate to see mass graves and dead women and children in the street and not have a moral imperative to at least let them fight their battle and win the war.
My criticism is we have not given them the weaponry that they need to win.
And this is the problem with America.
When we get involved in foreign conflicts, we don't fight to win anymore.
If you fight, you got to fight to win.
And that's why I'm so against one American boot on the ground in Ukraine or frankly anywhere else in the world for that matter at this point.
I don't trust them anymore.
As a group, they're all gung-ho.
They don't fight to win.
And after a period of time, they'll politicize it.
And then they'll say, uh-oh, it's a political liability.
Never mind.
And we've lost how many of our American kids are national treasure that went, fought, bled, and died in this conflict.
So I'm just, you know, and modern military weaponry technology has advanced to the point that we don't need boots on the ground like we used to.
The single most destructive force that I fear at this point in history is that a weak America, a frail, weak, cognitive mess of a president, has now put the world order, if you will, not new world order, but alliances, let's put it that way.
It's a better word.
It's in chaos.
And so you see emerging new alliances, Russia, China, Iran.
That's an axis of evil that is going to be very difficult to handle down the road if that solidifies.
It's taken some of our allies, like now we're reading Saudi Arabia that used to want to work with us is now trying to make peace with the Iranians.
And then Joe kissing the Iranians' ass scares the hell out of me because that means they'll get a nuclear weapon married to their radical ideology, which will result in the death potentially of millions and millions of people.
It is very dangerous, more dangerous than any other point in my life that I can think of.
Anyway, thank you for the call.
All right, that's going to wrap things up for today.
Loaded up tonight, Hannity, Fox News.
Please set your DVR.
Piers Morgan joins us tonight.
Tulsi Gabbard, Senator Ron Johnson, Wisconsin.
By the way, they're coming after him with guns blazing.
Clay Travis, Monica Crowley, Pete Hagseth, Leo 2.0, Terrell, news I promise you'll never get from the media mob.
All happening 9 Eastern tonight.
Hannity on the Fox News channel.
We'll see you then back here tomorrow.
Thank you for making this show possible.
You want smart political talk without the meltdowns?
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I'm Carol Markowitz.
And I'm Mary Catherine Hamm.
We've been around the block in media and we're doing things differently.
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