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Dec. 9, 2022 - Sean Hannity Show
32:58
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, back to our top story of the day, and that is this prisoner exchange, if you will.
Brittany Greiner, in exchange for what is known as this guy, Victor Bout, 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.
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And Boot originally made his name in the 1980s, arming young Civil War fighters in Africa, was arrested in a 2008 sting operation in Thailand that was led by U.S. drug enforcement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 anyway, he's believed to be 55 years old and 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, Brittany Griner, I had said at the time, and I said a number of times, that I wanted her freed.
I felt the nine-year sentence for a marijuana violation in Russia was so excessive that 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 in 2020, Phoenix Mercury and WNBA star Brittany Greiner told the Arizona Republic she didn't think the national anthem should be played before WNBA games, and she said that she would not be on the floor.
In fact, it was.
Social media mocked her stance at the time and mocked it after she was sentenced to nine years in prison.
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 Paul's case differently than Brittany's case.
And while we have not yet succeeded in securing Paul's release, we have not given up.
Now, NBC News is saying that's not true.
A senior U.S. official is telling NBC News that the U.S. government had sought to have both Greiner and Whelan released as part of this swap with the Kremlin.
But the officials said that Russia treated Whelan differently because he's an accused spy and that the Kremlin gave the White House the choice of either Greiner or Whalen or none, which begs the question: well, why did Biden pick Brittany 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, 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.
The White House did refuse to say whether Biden played a role in a lot of the, what role he actually played in all of this.
But Victor Boot, you know, the merchant of death in exchange for somebody that had a minor weed conviction just sounds so disproportionate.
Another report is out there that the Saudi crown prince, MBS, led talks to help Biden free Brittany Griner in this swap for the merchant of death that left Paul Whalen behind.
Anyway, here to weigh in on all of this is Rebecca Koffler, president of the Doctrine and Strategy Consulting, former director of intelligence, author of the book Putin's Playbook, Russia's Secret Plan to Defeat America, which I don't think is going to happen.
Rebecca, welcome back to the program.
How are you?
Great.
Thank you for having me, Sean.
The question, okay, 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 certainly, why didn't they push Russia?
If we're going to give back the merchant of death, shouldn't we have gotten both of them for the price of one?
Absolutely.
But we have the president in charge of the country who, again, is acting out of self-interest.
You know, he has scored political points by trading as celebrity rather than a former U.S. Marine.
I mean, but the truth is, Sean, is that right now there are 23 Americans jailed in Russian prisons.
And they're just regular folks, you know, like Paul Whelan, who, 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 with Trump, who is an excellent negotiator.
But Biden caved.
I mean, Biden caved.
Putin secured his very high-value asset.
You know, Victor Boot is not just a bad dude, like you said, and everything that he has done, including conspiring to kill Americans, he is also directly linked to Putin through Igor Ditchin, who is a former KGB officer.
And right now, 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 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 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 is a bad dude.
The reason he ended up in prison is because he was moving millions of Soviet weaponry.
You know, when the Soviet Union collapsed back in 1991, a lot of the military hardware fell into the hands of really bad people like Boot.
He's a former GRU, JRU being the Russian military intelligence.
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 inciting various conflicts around the world.
And so during the sting operation, as you mentioned, we captured this guy.
It took years and really a lot of intelligence resources, guys from the drug enforcement administration who literally, Sean, risked their lives to capture this guy because this is a highly skilled dude.
And unfortunately, the Biden administration is treating him like this, you know, rogue agent.
He's not a rogue agent.
He is a former GRU intelligence officer who is linked to Putin.
And right now, he is going to do a lot more damage right now because we had 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 a thought, you inadvertently reveal what it is that you need from them.
And all of that information is going 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.
All right, we continue with Rebecca Koffler, and she wrote the book Putin's Playbook and Russia's Secret Plan to Defeat America.
Why is Vladimir Putin seemed so paranoid at this point?
I know that his efforts in Ukraine obviously have been frustrating to him.
He's been bombing civilians indiscriminately in neighborhoods and taking out infrastructure necessary even to heat homes and have electricity.
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.
The reason is there's really no credible intelligence that indicates to us that he has any of those illnesses.
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's assessment right now, with which I 100% agree, is that Putin is healthy.
At least there's nothing in his, that he's suffering from right now that would indicate that he's about to kick the bucket.
He routinely gives speeches.
His last one was about three hours.
He sounds clear.
He's not crazy.
He's not, you know, there were all these reports that he's isolated.
He's getting, you know, seen.
You're not buying any of that.
Does he have body doubles that you know of?
I personally do not know that he has any kind of doubles.
We don't have any evidence on that.
And part of the reason, even if he did, Sean, the guy is a complete, not only paranoid, but he's a control freak.
He wants himself to appear in all of the important events, meet with, 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, Rosgvardia, which is specifically stood up to protect his regime.
And one of his former buddies, Viktor Zolotov, is in charge of that organization, who served as Putin's personal bodyguard and the bodyguard for former Russian President Boris Yeltsin, you know, the drunk, the clown, and also Sabchak, the mayor of St. Petersburg.
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 men are fleeing the country fearing being mobilized.
But it is my intelligence assessment that there's no critical mass that will result in a mass social unrest and Putin's ouster.
In fact, I have my unclassified intelligence analysis published on the Fox News website about 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 will see.
I mean, unfortunately, his approval rating is still at about 75%, with 78% 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 and propaganda that is anti-U.S., anti-West.
And so they believe that they're at war right now, not just against Ukraine, but against the West, and 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, you know, 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, you know, like Westerners, right?
They copied some of the Western uniform and they sacrificed the functionality and all of these, you know, the heavy wall, the felt, the cotton.
And they wanted to look stylish and look good in the military parade.
And so they're skimping on the uniform.
And right now, the Russian soldiers are joking that at minus 20 degrees Celsius, which is below 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 going to have to run.
Rebecca Koffler, appreciate your insight into Vladimir Putin and this prisoner exchange.
We're happy for Brittany Griner and her family, but we do want to see Paul Whalen released sooner than later, an American Marine who fought in Iraq, who's been there much longer than her.
And if this NBC report turns out to be true, Biden's got a lot of questions to answer.
Anyway, Rebecca Koffler, 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 sass.
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.
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 sass.
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, 800-941.
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 would say hard no.
Yeah.
Oh my gosh.
What is wrong with you?
That stuff scares me.
I don't, you know, I don't want to see anybody.
I'm not really in all like Nat 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 each other, you don't watch Wicket Tuna, do you?
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 it.
When I come home from news, I'm telling you, first of all, I don't really watch TV, and on the rare occasions I do, I'm watching.
Watching cartoons with Liam 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.
Anyway, say that again?
I'm sorry, what?
The biology professor at Allegheny College, Lisa Whitenack is her name, 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 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 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.
But we're not allowed to name our kids Mike.
I don't know if 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.
I feel so bad for people who actually named Karen.
What a mess.
Yeah.
Oh, she's a Karen.
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.
Oh, one win for the good people.
Southwest Airlines, they fired a flight attendant.
Her name was Charlene Carter from her dream job for expressing her pro-life views.
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, $950,000 from the local union, and $4 million, $4.15 million from Southwest Airlines.
How great is that?
That's awesome.
I mean, unfortunately, it's just really rare.
Where was that case heard?
What state?
Where's the case heard?
I don't know.
I don't have it in front of me.
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 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, said that Desmond is a selfish, effing, BI, you know what, 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 that.
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 is in a public square, it's not hurting anybody.
It's just celebrating.
We have schools in two states now having after-school Satan meetings.
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 curious.
This is where people's minds are at.
I mean, I mean, if you look at, did you look at James O'Keefe today?
He put the story out.
And 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 separating by race.
So all the little white kids.
The 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.
The guy ran inside.
He wouldn't even deal with it.
Oh, the Dallas jury is the one that awarded the $5 million.
So that explains why she won.
It depends what court you're in.
If it was in D.C., if it was in Fulton County, forget it.
All right.
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.
I'm doing good here in the free state of Florida.
And Governor DeSantis won by a landslide, so this is great and easy down here.
Well, we have a housing recession, housing market recession going on, but I'm predicting that you guys down in Florida are going to do very well 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 going to do great.
And you might take a minor hit in the short term, but your property values will not only go back up faster, but they'll go higher than they ever were.
That mark my words.
Yeah, I know.
I know a realtor really well, and she was helping somebody from Kansas the other day look at some houses and said, yeah, they're coming down next year.
The husband's going to come down first, and then the wife, because of Governor DeSantis's, didn't lock up any of the businesses and stuff like that.
So they're making these moves when they can.
So even from Kansas.
So it's interesting how this, you know, the benefits of that.
So the reason why I also called was I was listening to Kellyanne Conway last night on your Fox show, and she was talking about basically the grand strategy of the 2024 election, and we need to have be more articulate on our message.
I think she was talking about the seven seconds, 70 seconds, and seven minutes.
And it reminded me of the late Herman Cain.
I had a conversation with him seven years ago, and I talked to him about one of the things about the political process that we have, the broken rung of the political process, is the conversation over the kitchen table and the kitchen table, because, of course, the media and other outlets, we don't have these conversations anymore with our kids and or maybe our children or adult children.
And he said, 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 you talk about the fentanyl and gas prices.
We need to buckle down and talk to and be courageous and bring that together with our families so we can have those conversations again.
I think we've lost that in the last four or five years.
Well, because of my work hours, I didn't have the traditional 6 p.m., 7 p.m. dinner at home, and everyone sat around the table and you talk about issues.
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 conservative, but it's not because I've indoctrinated them or tried to convince them.
And they just watch for themselves.
And as soon as my son got out of college, got in the real world, I mean, those calls and texts were coming in flying in on a regular basis.
Dad, did you see this?
I did this deal.
And look what the government charges.
Look at this.
I'm like, really?
Oh, okay.
I said, welcome to the real world.
And 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 I tell you right now that if we got rid of withholding, meaning you got your entire check, let's say you make $1,000 a week and you got the entire $1,000 without federal taxes, FICA taxes, Social Security taxes, in other words, local taxes taken out.
You got your full $1,000 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 going to say $1,000.
Oh, I make $600 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 ticked off.
Then they'd want to know why the government's spending all this money the way they spend it.
It's insane.
Anyway, go ahead.
Last word, sir.
Yeah, my son, who's learning to be a plumber, plumber apprentice.
So he comes home, he drives this truck, he's paying $4.
You know, he's asked me the other day, hey, if I ask him to do me a run an errand for me, he goes, can you put some gas on my truck?
And then, you know, we need to, you know, we need to bring that on home to our kids.
And he's the one that surprised me.
He went to Normandy in France a few years ago, and he saw the beaches of Normandy.
He came back on fire for the sacrifice or veterans have done.
And he's actually the one that got me to go to the Donald Trump rally in Baytona Beach six years ago.
So our kids surprise us sometimes.
They don't want to share a lot of things with you.
But UBC, they're learning.
They see what you're doing and they copy off that and then they pleasantly surprise us.
Yeah.
You know, I'll tell you this.
I talk to my son more about his passion for sports than anything else.
Anyway, George, appreciate the call, my friend.
By the way, 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 going to stop moving to Florida, the Carolinas, Tennessee, and Texas, and they're going to start moving out of the country.
So back on the loss 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.
It would be great if there were some.
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.
And you look at the program we've done, you know, what we did with AIDS in Africa or what we did with President Obama to deal with Ebola and so forth.
So we're on deck.
I mean, we're in the fight.
But yes, we're the largest economy in the world, $21, $22 trillion economy.
The next closest to us is China at, what, $16 or so trillion?
We have to step up to lead.
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 we're a developing country or 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 appropriate responsibility, which doesn't mean none.
You would expect China to potentially have a contributor nation.
I would hope.
Okay.
I mean, that's we will, you know, we picked up the conversation with China in Sharm.
Unfortunately, you know, I got COVID in the last two days and we had to quite finish those conversations, but we will continue.
Yeah, John Kerry thinks that every American just prints money.
No, the government does that.
All right, that's going to wrap things up for today.
Now, we're going to get into all the details on this prisoner swap deal.
Why wasn't Paul Whalen freed?
Is NBC telling the truth or is Joe Biden telling the truth?
One of the two are lying because NBC is reporting that they were given the choice, Greiner or Whalen, and Joe Biden said just the opposite.
So who's telling the truth?
We'll let you decide tonight.
Well, a full analysis and coverage.
Pam Bondi, Harris Faulkner tonight, Leo 2.0 Terrell, Larry Elder, Steve Miller tonight, Dan Hoffman, Clay Travis, and Congressman Waltz.
All you need to do is set your DVR, 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.
You want smart political talk without the meltdowns?
We got you.
I'm Carol Markowitz.
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.
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