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Dec. 9, 2022 - Sean Hannity Show
33:05
What About Paul Whelan? - December 8th, 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, uh back to our top story of the day, and that is this this prisoner exchange, if you will.
Uh Brittany Griner, in exchange for what is known as this guy, Victor Bout, uh, who is a or I'm sorry, Victor Boot, who is known as the Merchant of Death.
He's a Russian arms dealer.
He's been serving a 25-year prison sentence in the U.S. on charges of conspiring to kill Americans, acquire and export anti-aircraft missiles, and provide material support to a terrorist organization, convicted in 2011, and Boot maintained that he was innocent, but that's neither here nor there.
Uh before he became the world's most notorious arms dealer by fueling civil wars around the world.
And Boot originally made his name in the 1980s, arming young civil war fighters in Africa, was arrested in a 2008 sting operation in Thailand that led uh that was led by U.S. drug enforcement agents posing as Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia.
Now, this was years in the making, and it was called Operation Relentless, and was eventually handed over to the U.S. in 2010.
As I said, he was convicted in 2011.
And uh anyway, uh he's believed to be 55 years old, and he was born, who knows, he speaks six languages.
This is a bad guy, a really bad guy.
Now, what has come into play here is now Britney Greiner, I had said at the time, and I said a number of times, um, that I wanted her freed.
I felt the nine-year sentence for a marijuana violation in Russia was so excessive that I I would like to see our government get engaged and try and get her free.
Now, this in spite of the fact, I did know this at the time.
It doesn't matter that she has political views that are different than mine, but you know, in 2020, Phoenix Mercury and and WMBA star Britney Griner told the Arizona Republic she didn't think the national anthem should be played before WMBA games, and she said that she would not be on the floor if in fact it was.
Social media mocked her stance at the time and mocked it after she was sentenced to nine years in prison.
Uh no American should be spending nine years in prison in Russia for such a minor offense.
Now, the issue that has come up is Joe Biden earlier today said that this was not a choice, commenting on the fact that we have another American by the name of Paul Whalen, who is in prison as well.
Now, Biden said sadly, for illegitimate reasons, Russia has treated uh Paul's case differently than Britney's case, and while we have not yet succeeded in securing Paul's release, we have not given up.
Now, MBC News is saying that's not true.
A senior U.S. officials telling MBC News that the U.S. government had sought to have both Griner and Whalen released as part of this swap with the Kremlin, but the officials said that Russia treated Whalen differently because he's an accused spy and that the Kremlin gave the White House the choice of either Griner or Whalen or none,
which begs the question well, why did Biden pick Britney Greiner, who's been in prison for just 10 months over Paul Whalen, who's been serving time in the gulag since December of 2018.
And I think a lot of people are also going to wonder why Paul Whalen, who was a Marine who served his country in Iraq, uh, was passed over by Biden in this particular case.
I'm sure his family's not particularly happy with this report after it came out.
Um White House did refuse to say whether Biden played a role in uh in a lot of the what role he actually played in all of this.
Um, but Victor Boot, you know, the merchant of death in exchange for somebody that had a minor weed uh conviction just sounds so disproportionate.
Another report is out there that the Saudi Crown Prince MBS led talks to help Biden free Britney Griner uh in this swap uh for the merchant of death uh that left Paul Whalen behind.
Uh anyway, here to weigh in on all of this is Rebecca Koffler, president of the Doctrine and Strategy Consulting, former uh director of uh intelligence, author of the book, Putin's Playbook, Russia's Secret Plan to Defeat America, which I don't think is gonna happen.
Uh Rebecca, welcome back to the program.
How are you?
Great.
Thank you for having me, Sean.
The the question, okay.
I I I'm not sure why.
If MBC's report is correct, do you think that the president will be questioned why did you choose Brittany Griner, who's only been in jail a short time versus a Marine that has been in jail for years.
And uh and certainly why didn't they push Russia if we're gonna give back the merchant of death?
Shouldn't we have gotten both of them for the price of one?
Absolutely.
But uh we have the president uh in charge of the country who again is acting out of self-interest.
You know, he has scored political points by uh trading as celebrity rather than a former U.S. Marine.
I mean, but the truth is, uh Sean, is that right now there are 23 Americans jailed in Russian prisons, and they're just regular folks, you know, like like Paul Whelan, who uh, like you said, served our country valiantly.
It's like Mark Fogel, who is a teacher, and many, many others.
But unfortunately, Joe Biden is not a match, you know, to Putin, who drove a very hard bargain.
This would have never happened uh with Trump, who is an excellent negotiator.
But Biden caved.
I mean, Biden caved Putin secured his very high value asset.
You know, this Victor Boot is not just a bad dude, like you said, and uh everything that he has done, including conspiring to kill Americans.
He is also directly linked to Putin through Igor Gitchin, who is a former KGB officer.
And uh right now, uh Putin needs him desperately because Boot, as the international arms trafficker, knows all of the clandestine networks on how to move arms.
And now that Russia is struggling to secure a military victory in Ukraine and is relying on Iran and North Korea and other dictatorships for ammunition.
This is when Boot comes in.
And unfortunately, the Biden administration is just too, you know, irrational and and and frankly too incompetent to realize this big picture.
It seems like you know a lot about this merchant of death.
What do you know about Victor Boot?
Well, Victor Boot, like you said, he he is a bad dude.
The reason he ended up in prison is because he was moving millions of uh Soviet weaponry.
You know, when the Soviet Union collapsed back in 1991, uh a lot of the military hardware fell into the hands of really bad people like uh Boot.
He's a former G R U J U being the uh Russian military intelligence.
Uh so he got hold of a lot of these weaponry and he started trading those in the black market.
And some of it really fell into the arms of the terrorists, and he was in inciting various conflicts around the world.
And so during the sting operation, as you mentioned, we captured this guy.
It took years in and and really a lot of intelligence resources, um, guys from the uh drug enforcement administration who literally uh Sean risked their lives to capture this guy because this is a highly skilled uh dude.
And unfortunately, the Biden administration is treating him like this, you know, a rogue agent.
He's not a rogue agent.
He is a from my GIU intelligence who is linked to Putin.
And right now, he is going to do a lot More damage right now because we had uh debriefed this person for years, right?
Trying to collect, you know, secrets from him.
He never, you know, confessed to what he did, really.
He never acknowledged his crime, but he knows our intelligence requirements.
You know, when you debrief the thoughts, you inadvertently reveal what it is that you need from them.
And all of that information is gone right now directly to Putin and his lieutenants and Russian security and intelligence services.
All right, quick break more with Rebecca Koffler.
She is an expert on Putin and Russia, more on the other side.
We'll get to your calls.
And she wrote the book Putin's Playbook and Russia's secret plan to defeat America.
Why is Vladimir Putin seems so paranoid at this point?
I know that his efforts in Ukraine obviously have been frustrating to him.
Uh he's been bombing civilians indiscriminately in neighborhoods and taking out infrastructure necessary even uh to heat homes and have electricity.
Uh what do you think is going on in Putin's mind?
Do you believe these reports that maybe he's battling cancer or Parkinson's?
I've heard a whole series of potential illnesses he has.
I don't.
Um the reason is there's really no credible uh intelligence that indicates to us that he has any of those illnesses.
Um obviously we cannot say with 100% certainty of what Putin has and doesn't have, right?
That is because no Western doctor has ever examined Putin.
But our intelligence community of assessment right now, with which I 100% agree, is that Putin is healthy.
At least there's nothing um in his that he's suffering from right now that would indicate that he's about to kick the bucket.
Uh he routinely gives um speeches.
The his last one was about uh three hours.
He sounds, you know, uh clear, he's not crazy, he's not, you know, there were all these reports uh that he's isolated, he's getting, you know, see nothing.
You know, you're not buying any of this.
Does he have body doubles that you know of?
I I personally do not know um that he has any kind of doubles.
We don't have any evidence on that.
And part of the reason if he even if he did, Sean, the guy is a complete uh not only paranoid, but he's a control freak.
He wants himself to appear in all of the important events, meet with uh, you know, Xi Jinping and all the other various dictators.
He would not allow anyone to represent him.
And as far as his security is concerned, he has created National Guard, Rosguardia, which is specifically uh stood up to protect his regime, and one of his former buddies, uh, Victor Zolotov is in charge of that organization who served as Putin's personal bodyguard and the body bodyguard for former uh Russian president Boris Yeltsin,
you know, the drunk, the clown, and um and also uh Sebchak, the mayor of um St. Petersburg.
And is there is there enough resistance towards Putin and is the anti-war movement strong enough that maybe somebody close to him would take him out?
So at this point there is some movement, Sean.
There are some people who are unhappy, right?
As you pointed out, military age uh men are fleeing the country fearing uh being mobilized.
But it is my as intelligence assessment that there's no critical mass that will result in you know a mass social unrest and um Putin's ouster.
In fact, I have mine classified intelligence analysis published on the Fox News website about uh what is the probability of regime change.
And my assessment is unfortunately Putin's regime is fairly stable right now.
There's no indication that there will be an internal coup.
There's no indication that a military rebellion is in the works, but we we will see.
I mean, unfortunately, his approval rating is still at about seventy-five percent, uh, with seventy-eight percent trusting him remember the Russians don't think like Americans they prefer somebody who is very strong because they've been fed a lot of disinformation on propaganda that is anti US anti-West and so they believe that they're at war right now not just against Ukraine but
against the West, especially the United States.
It's pretty fascinating what's going on there.
What about all these people that are being drafted into the army, into this conflict with Ukraine that are leaving the country?
Will there be consequences for them?
Yes, definitely.
Right now, it is terrifying to be a Russian soldier on the front line.
In fact, we also have another piece on the Fox News website talking about how the Russian soldiers are dying from hypothermia.
Why?
It's because their current uniform is not built for extreme Russian weather conditions because with the collapse of the Soviet Union, various Russian generals wanted desperately to look like Westerners.
They copied some of the Western uniform, and they sacrificed the functionality and all of these, you know, the heavy wool, the felt, the cotton, and they wanted to look stylish.
and and look good in the military parade and so they're skimping on the uniform and right now the Russian soldiers are joking that uh at minus 20 degrees Celsium which is below uh freezing point they are desperately waiting for the enemy to just shoot them down and put them out of their misery rather than be frozen to death.
Well I'm gonna have to run Rebecca Kaufler appreciate your insight into Vladimir Putin and this prisoner exchange uh we're happy for Brittany Griner and her family uh but we do want to see Paul Whalen released sooner than later uh an American Marine who fought in Iraq who's been there much longer than her and if this MBC report turns out to be true uh Biden's got a lot of questions to answer.
Uh anyway Rebecca Kaufler thank you for being with us hey there I'm Mary Catherine Hamm.
And I'm Carol Markowitz.
We've been in political media for a long time.
Long enough to know that it's gotten well a little insane.
That's why we started normally a podcast for people who are over the hysteria and just want clarity.
We talk about the issues that actually matter to the country without panic without yelling and with a healthy dose of humor.
We don't take ourselves too seriously but we do take the truth seriously.
So if you're into common sense sanity and some occasional SAS.
You're our kind of people catch new episodes of Normally every Tuesday and Thursday.
On the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts or wherever you listen Hey there I'm Mary Catherine Hamm.
And I'm Carol Markowitz.
We've been in political media for a long time long enough to know that it's gotten well a little insane.
That's why we started normally a podcast for people who are over the hysteria and just want clarity.
We talk about the issues that actually matter to the country without panic without yelling and with a healthy dose of humor.
We don't take ourselves too seriously but we do take the truth seriously so if you're into common sense sanity and some occasional SAS.
You're our kind of people catch new episodes of Normally every Tuesday and Thursday.
On the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcast or wherever you listen 25 to the top of the hour 800 nine four one Sean if you want to be a part of the program Linda do you ever watch Shark Week have you ever watched it?
No you've never watched Shark Week you sound surprised I am surprised why would you not watch Shark you've never seen any documentary on like great whites and their attacks on humans or any of that I I I would say hard no yeah.
Oh my gosh what is wrong with you that stuff scares me.
I've I don't you know I'm I don't want to see anybody I don't I'm not really in all like not geo like watching listen I love nature and I love animals and I love to see them at peace but when they start each other and attacking you don't you don't watch Wicked tuna do You don't want you don't watch below zero.
You don't watch any of the shows that I like.
I work in news.
The world is ugly and scary.
Exactly.
That's why I do home from news.
I'm telling you, I first of all, I don't really watch TV.
And on the rare occasions I do.
I'm watching.
Watching cartoons with Leah is what you're watching.
100%.
100%.
All right.
So Shark Week, according to the Washington Post, as I digress, apparently they're claiming it lacks diversity, overrepresents men named Mike.
You can't make this up.
Uh anyway, uh, say that again.
I'm sorry, what?
The biology professor at Allegheny College, Lisa Whitenak is her name, uh, saw an opportunity to study Shark Week during the COVID lockdowns, and she led a team of researchers to examine hundreds of Shark Week episodes that aired between 1988 and 2020.
They published a study on this uh by the public library of science, and they claim that Discovery's programming emphasized the negative messages about sharks, lacked useful messaging about shark conservation, and overwhelmingly featured white men as experts, including several with the same name Mike.
And they said that the programming featured more white experts and commentators named White Mike than women.
David Schiffman, a conservationist at Arizona State University, who co-authored the study.
Why would you study something like this?
Get a life.
This is pathetic.
Yeah, I mean, there's a lot of people doing a lot of weird things and taking a lot of taxpayer dollars to look at really dumb stuff.
And I'm like, we're not allowed to name our kids Mike.
I love how people use Mike Karen.
You can't, you know.
Oh, that person's a Karen.
I still don't even know what that reference is.
Oh my gosh, I know.
That feels so bad for people who are actually named Karen.
What a mess.
Yeah.
What is, you know, oh, she's a Karen.
Well, by the way, what is a Karen?
I don't even know.
It's like a racial way to identify a white woman who's being too white for the name callers to taste.
Oh my gosh.
Um, oh, one win for the good people, Southwest Air Airlines.
They fired a flight attendant.
Her name was Charlene Carter from her dream job for expressing her pro-life view.
She fought the airline and the transport workers' union for six years.
She won in July, and the judge that ruled in her favor issued an order this week requiring the airline to reinstate her with full seniority and benefits in July.
A federal jury agreed that Carter had been wrongfully terminated for being pro-life and religious and awarded the former flight attendant $5.1 million, $150,000 from the local union, and 400 uh 4 million 4.15 million from Southwest Airlines.
How great is that?
That's awesome.
I mean, it's unfortunately it's just really rare.
I'm I don't where was that case um heard?
What state?
What was the case heard?
I don't know.
I don't have it in front of me.
Hmm.
I'd be curious to know that.
So one other issue, a Christmas tree is not going to be put up in Massachusetts at the public library this year because people allegedly are uncomfortable having to look at a Christmas tree.
What?
I don't even understand.
I really don't.
Well, okay.
Lisa Desmond, branch supervisor for the uh Dedham Public Library, said last week on Facebook, I found out today my beautiful library will not have its Christmas tree this year.
Zero explanation.
When I asked, I was told that people were made uncomfortable last year looking at a Christmas tree.
The poster who she said works for the local human rights commission uh said that Desmond is a selfish, effing BI, you know what, uh that doesn't care about anyone else but herself.
We're talking about a tree that's decorated with lights that are supposed to make people happy.
It's just all things Christian.
If you're a Christian, you are not allowed to be a Christian.
You're not allowed to have a unbelievable.
It's unbelievable.
And we have to, I'm telling you right now, I would have this same conversation, whether it was about something that had to do with Ramadan or something that had to do with Hanukkah or any other celebration.
If you want to put something up and it isn't a public square, it's not hurting anybody, it's just celebrating.
Right, exactly.
Or they're having gender studies, you know, without your eye without your knowledge or whatever it is.
I'm like, this stuff is okay, but a Christmas tree makes you upset.
It's like when you say Merry Christmas to somebody and like I don't celebrate Christmas.
That's okay.
I'm still Chapman University professor, Sally Rubin, apparently also a pro transgender filmmaker, explained she will not allow her daughter to watch films with white boys as lead characters.
I wonder what she classifies that as, right?
I have no idea.
I'm just I'm just curious.
You're teaching things to deal with.
I mean, if you look at did you look at James O'Keefe today, he put the story out.
And it's just it's a horrible story about you know putting all of these sort of very sexually overt things in front of our children at a very elite school, 40,000 a year.
But they got four year olds there now that they're sell they're separating by race.
So all the little white guys on tape saying that they show kids sex toys.
Nothing to see here.
But let's take down the Christmas tree.
That is very offensive.
And the guy ran inside, he wouldn't even deal with it.
Oh, the Dallas jury is the one that would awarded the five million dollars.
So that explains why she won.
It depends what court you're in.
If it was in DC, if it was in uh Fulton County, forget it.
Um let's go to our phones.
Let's say hi to George in Florida.
George, the free state of Florida.
How are you, sir?
Hey, Sean.
Hi, thanks for taking my call.
Um I'm doing good to hear in uh the free state of Florida.
Um Governor DeSantis won by a landslide, so this is grievance easy down here.
Well, that we we have a housing recession, housing market recession going on, but I'm predicting that you guys down in Florida are gonna do very well uh because of all the people that are moving down there, record numbers of people migrating down south to Florida.
Same with Tennessee, same with the Carolinas, same with Texas.
You guys are all gonna do great.
And you might take a minor hit in in the short term, but your property values will not only go back up faster, but um they'll go higher than they ever were.
That marked my words.
Yeah, I know.
I know a realtor really well, and she was uh helping somebody from Kansas the other day look at some houses and said, Yeah, they're coming down next year.
The husband's gonna come down first, and then wife because of uh Governor DeSantis's didn't lock up any of the businesses and stuff like that.
So they're making these moves when you they can.
So even from Kansas.
So it's it's in it's interesting how what uh how this uh you know, the benefits of that.
So uh but the the reason why I also called was I was listening to Carol Kellyanne Conway last night on on your um a Fox uh show and she is talking about um uh the basically the grand strategy of a 2024 election and we need to have um be more articulate on our message.
Um I think she was talking about the second seven seconds, seventy seconds, and seven minutes.
And it reminded me um of uh the late Herman Kane.
I had a conversation with him seven years ago, and I talked with him talked to him about one of the things about the the of the political process that we have a the broken rung of the political process is the conversation over the kitchen table in the kitchen table because of course the media and and other outlets, we don't have these conversations anymore with our young kids with our kids and or maybe you know our our children or adult children.
And he said we have we have to bring it on home is that what he called it, bring it all the way back home and how it affects our family.
And I know we're you talk about the fentanyl and in gas prices.
We need to buckle down and talk to her and and and be courageous and bring that together with our family so we can uh we can have those conversations again.
I think we've lost that in the last four or five years.
Well, uh because of my work hours, I didn't have the traditional, you know, 6 p.m., 7 p.m. dinner at home, and everyone sit around sat around the table and you talk about issues.
Um actually I did not really bring my job home as it relates to my kids.
And it's interesting on their own, they have picked up varying levels, my son more than my daughter in politics.
They're both pr conservative, but it's not Because I've indoctrinated them or tried to convince them.
Um, and they just watch for themselves.
And as soon as my son got out of college, got in the real world.
I mean, those those calls and texts were coming in flying in on a regular basis.
Dad, did you see this?
I did this deal, and look, look what the government charges.
Look at this.
I'm like, really?
Oh, okay.
And said, Welcome to the real world.
Um it's eye-opening for people.
I mean, the single best thing you can do is get a job and see how much money the government takes out.
And you the if I tell you right now that if we got rid of withholding, meaning you got your entire check.
Let's let's say you make a thousand dollars a week and you got the entire thousand dollars without federal taxes, FICA taxes, social security taxes, in other words, uh local taxes taken out.
You got your full thousand dollars, and you had to write a check, a monthly check to the IRS, and then the state IRS or whoever else you had to pay.
Let me tell you, people would be pissed off.
People just because they don't by withholding, people don't even really think if you ask them how much you make, they're not gonna say a thousand dollars.
Oh, I make six hundred dollars uh a a week or whatever it happens to be.
And I think if people understood it more and paid more attention to it, they'd be they'd be ticked off.
Then they'd want to know why the government's spending all this money the way they spend it.
It's insane.
Um last word, sir.
Yeah, my my son, who's learning to be uh a plumber, plumber apprentice.
So he comes home, he drives his truck, he's paying four dollars.
You know, he's asked me the other day, hey, can you if I ask me to run now for me, but can you put some gas on my truck?
And and then you know, we need to, you know, you know, we need to bring that on home to our kids.
And uh and he's the one that surprised me.
He went to um Normandy in France a few years ago, and he saw the beaches of Normandy.
He came back on fire for the sacrifice our our our bedrooms have done.
And he he's actually the one that got me to go to the Donald Trump rally in Beethoven Beach, you know, in uh six years ago.
So our kids surprise us sometimes.
They don't want to share a lot of things with you, but you can see they're learning, they see what you're doing, and they copy off that, and then they you know, they pleasantly surprise us.
Yeah, you know, uh I'll tell you this.
I talk with to my son more about f his passion for sports than anything else.
Uh anyway, George, appreciate the call, my friend.
By the way, let me let me play John Kerry, it dovetails into this discussion about oh, the private sector has the money to pay for the green energy transition.
Well, John, no, it doesn't.
And if you start confiscating people's wealth to that extent, they're gonna stop moving to Florida, the Carolinas, Tennessee, and Texas, and uh they're gonna start moving out of the country.
So less and damage fund, though.
I mean, is there going to have to be U.S. taxpayer money that helps the United States?
And presumably the United States is going to have to be one of the nations that contributes.
Uh it's uh I mean the United States of America proudly is the largest humanitarian donor in the world.
The American people already do an enormous amount around the world.
Yes.
And you look at the program we've done, you know, what we did with uh AIDS in Africa or what we did with uh President Obama to deal with uh Ebola and so forth.
So we're we're on deck.
I mean, we're in the fight.
But but yes, we're the largest economy in the world, 21, 22 trillion dollar economy.
The next closest to us is China at what, 16 or so trillion?
We have to step up to lead.
And but we have to also demand everybody else is at the table.
And that means China too, and other countries who can't hide behind this UN cloak of uh we're a developing country, or it's uh it's a common but differentiated principle that we apply to this.
It is common but differentiated.
But common means you accept your level of of appropriate responsibility, which doesn't mean none.
You would expect China to potentially have contributor nation.
I would hope.
Okay.
I mean, that's we will, you know, we're we picked up the conversation with China in charm.
Unfortunately, uh, you know, I got COVID the last two days, and we had to we couldn't quite finish those conversations, but we will continue.
Yeah, John Kerry thinks that uh every American just prints money.
No, the government does that.
that's gonna wrap things up for today.
Now we're gonna get into all the details on this prisoner swap deal.
Uh, why wasn't Paul Whalen freed?
Is MBC telling the truth, or is Joe Biden telling the truth?
One of the two are lying.
Because MBC is reporting that they were given the choice, Griner or Whalen, and Joe Biden said just the opposite.
So who's telling the truth?
We'll let you decide tonight.
Well, a full uh analysis and coverage.
Pam Bondi, uh Harris Faulkner tonight, Leo 2.0 Torrell, Larry Elder, Steve Miller tonight, uh, Dan Hoffman, Clay Travis, and Congressman Waltz.
Uh, all you need to do is set your D VR, 9 Eastern Hannity on the Fox News Channel.
We'll see you tonight.
We'll be back here tomorrow.
Thank you for joining us and making the show possible.
Thank you.
You want smart political talk without the meltdowns?
We got you.
And I'm Carol Markovich.
And I'm Mary Catherine Hamm.
We've been around the block in media and we're doing things differently.
Normally is about real conversations.
Thoughtful, try to be funny, grounded, and no panic.
We'll keep you informed and entertained without ruining your day.
Join us every Tuesday and Thursday, normally on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.
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