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Dec. 24, 2022 - Sean Hannity Show
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Best of Hannity: Congressman Mike Waltz - December 23, Hour 1

Congressman Mike Waltz on this Best of Hannity discusses the embarrassment of the United States' abandonment of Afghanistan. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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We've been counting down uh all the days since Joe Biden uh abandoned our fellow Americans behind enemy lines.
That was only about a month or two ago uh that in fact his his own Secretary of State Winkin Blinken admitted that yeah, we we still have hundreds of Americans behind enemy lines that want to get out.
But it's the opposite of what Joe Biden was telling us at the time.
Then we have thousands of people that have green cards eligible to live in the US, they can't get out either.
And add to that, of course, uh our Afghan allies, many that have already been killed, as they were lists left behind, sadly.
Uh many that have uh uh never been seen or heard from again, so you can pretty much assume what happened to them.
Never mind the the tens of billions of dollars in the most sophisticated military weaponry on the face of this earth.
But in the run up to this, you know, Joe Biden was telling us that the Taliban takeover of Afghanistan is is not inevitable, and then saying that we're gonna get all Americans out of Afghanistan.
That's what he promised.
There's gonna be no circumstance where you see people being lifted off the roof of a embassy in the of the United States from Afghanistan.
Are you committed to making sure that the troops stay until every American who wants to be out is out?
Yes.
So Americans should understand the troops might have to be there beyond August 31st.
No, Americans don't understand that we're gonna try to get it done before August 31st.
But if we don't, the troops are if we don't will determine at the time who's left.
And if they're American force if there's American citizens left, we're gonna stay till we get them all out.
Uh Congressman Mike uh Waltz is with us, by the way, Florida Sixth District, former um Army Green Beret uh serving in Congress.
Uh he also wrote a children's book, Dawn of the Brave, talks about the one year anniversary of leaving Afghanistan, the loss of thirteen lives.
Nobody ever mentions it.
We mention it every day, either on radio or TV or both.
And everybody is just turned the page.
Nobody seems to care.
We have our fellow Americans held hostage there, and nobody seems to care at all.
Why?
Well, Sean, I'll get into that in a second, but I'll tell you who does care uh are the the veterans groups like uh Dynamo, Task Force Pineapple, Afghan Evax, so many others that stood up, grassroots efforts, many of them exhausted their personal savings, many of them left their job uh to do what we all swore to do, which was never leave a comrade behind, never leave a fellow American uh or an ally on the battlefield.
They're still at it, Sean.
They haven't let go, they're not going to let go, but I have never talked to a group so disgusted with their own government as the uh as the State Department fiddle farts around, uh, and as DOD and the generals just basically hold up their hand uh and do nothing.
So you're absolutely right in your lead-in.
I I had a meeting with uh uh Anthony Blinken.
Uh he admitted that, yeah, he and the president said around a hundred.
Um I call that a bold-faced lie.
They've now are saying no, it's more like eight times that, around eight hundred Americans that they've since pulled out, and they're still Americans uh behind enemy lines.
Many of them uh can't leave because some of their family members can't leave, and they don't want to leave them in the in the Taliban's hands.
You don't get to then classify them as not wanting to leave, as you heard Blinken and the and the president do.
Um and Sean, if I could just speak to one other piece.
You know, you're hearing the left this week keep pointing the finger at Trump as they love to do.
Oh, Trump cut this deal, Trump cut the Doha agreement that led to all of this.
Uh look, there were many of us who never thought the Taliban would live up to their end of the bargain.
They didn't.
They never entered into a ceasefire, they never entered into real negotiations.
We now see that they never backed away from uh from Al Qaeda.
But when President Trump was presented with those facts, guess what?
He left the troops to keep supporting the Afghan troops.
And the other thing is, you know, Biden had no problem, zero, none at all, with tearing up the Keystone Pipeline, tearing up uh the maximum pressure campaign with uh Iran or backing away from all of these other Trump policies, but yet suddenly he was stuck with this one.
Uh that that's just a bunch of garbage.
And uh and I'm I'm sick of hearing about it.
Well, I mean, I don't I don't think there's anything left to do.
So I do know the backstory is as President Trump talked about getting out of these, you know, never ending ending conflicts with Afghanistan.
There were a couple of things that he said to me in interviews and and others have confirmed for me is number one, Bagram Air Base would have been ours.
He would have held on to it.
And that would have been so it from a geopolitical standpoint, especially with the hostilities of China, it would have been critical for us to all keep control of that, considering we bought it and we paid for it, we built it, putting and and putting all of that aside.
But in the early conversations with the leader of the Taliban, uh Trump relayed a story to me that in fact he's before they would ever talk about any deal or any pull out of any kind, um, and there were 18 months where not a single American the last 18 months Donald Trump was president, there wasn't a single American killed.
And he said to the head of the Taliban, before we talk about anything, you don't you got you need to understand something.
That if you don't follow every dotted eye, cross T, every comma, every period, I will obliterate you.
And he said it, according to other sources, repeatedly throughout the whole process.
Now, interestingly, um that kept the Taliban in check.
They believed Donald Trump when he said it.
They had every reason to believe it because he had beaten the caliphate and Solomon and Baghdadian associates and the Al Qaeda leader in Yemen.
Now we know I'm happy that we got Iwan al-Zawari, but you know what?
We he they got him in Afghanistan because Afghanistan is once again a safe haven for terrorists.
So the point was is they didn't dare move an inch.
And then at one point in the conversation, Donald Trump gave him the exact address where he was at the time of the phone call to let him know I'll take your ass out.
Did you hear that story?
Yeah, oh, absolutely told it to me as well, right?
He said, I uh I told him I know where you live.
Uh and it it looked, the Taliban understand, I've sat across from these bastards uh in multiple tours.
They understand strength, uh, they are emboldened by weakness.
But uh uh I want to uh go to your point on Bagra.
Uh I wrote an op-ed, you know, as soon as Biden made this announcement, I wrote op at Fox.com, do not give up Bagra.
Not just because it would serve as a counterterrorism platform, but also because it had a prison there full of the worst of the worst of ISIS and Al-Qaeda, not just Taliban, ISIS Al-Qaeda International Terrorist.
And guess what?
We gave it up.
And two weeks later, a release, a prisoner that the Taliban released was the ISIS suicide bomber that killed our 13 uh brave Marines, soldiers, and sailors.
Uh there needs to be accountability for that decision.
And then the final piece on Bagram, as you mentioned, geostrategically, it's the only base in the world sandwiched between Iran, Russia, and China.
Sean, it's so close to the Chinese border uh that can you know it's closer to the Chinese border than Mexico City is to the Texas border.
Do you think if the Chinese had a 12,000 foot strategic runway in Mexico that they had bought and paid for, they would just give it up for nothing.
Of course they wouldn't.
But we did.
And the final thing, we talk a lot about strategic rare earth minerals, uh, the things that we need for computer chips to make our economy go.
Afghanistan was sitting on over a trillion dollars, verified by the US Geological Survey.
Uh, and guess who's sitting at Bagram now?
A Chinese geological survey team set to exploit all of that.
So this was just the biggest strategic blunder uh in in in modern history, and yet you've got the commander in chief, Joe Biden standing before the world saying this was uh a quote extraordinary success.
It's a slap in the face to everyone left behind, and it's a slap in the face to every veteran who sacrificed so much that knows better.
You know, I mean, I think that that gets to the heart of it all.
I mean, what what a sad state of affairs that this is now America.
If do you remember when the Iranians were holding Americans 444 days?
This I'm Ted Cabo, this is nightline.
Day four hundred and forty-four, you know.
So But Americans cared when Americans were taken hostage.
Nobody has ever held Joe accountable for this mess, this disaster.
And the difference between his plan and Trump's plan was Trump was saying to them, if you dare move before we pull out completely, then you're gonna be obliterated.
And he would have obliterated him because that was his MO.
And in this case, you know, look what happened.
Well, and get this, Sean, and uh, I don't think this gets enough attention.
There is an American Navy veteran by the name of Mark Freericks that the Taliban have been holding for years.
Uh, and you would have thought with uh Biden unleashing billions of uh foreign currency reserves to the Taliban, hundreds of million in humanitarian aid, you would have thought we could get one American hostage back that that they they have been sitting on and refuse to give.
And these guys can't negotiate their way out of a paper bag, but that's what happens when it's just concession after concession uh after concession and an appeasement policy, and why you're seeing so many of our adversaries on the march around the world, and why does it matter so much that we honor our promises to those SIV interpreters and those who fought with us?
Because we've got Green Berets and SEALs all over the world now, working from Africa to the Middle East, you name it, trying to work with local forces, whether they're going after terrorists or figuring out what the Chinese are up to, saying work with us, and they're all pointing back to Afghanistan and saying, you know what, you abandon your allies uh after 20 years, you're gonna abandon us too.
So it's not just the Chinese Communist Party propaganda machine to Taiwan and the Russian propaganda machine to Ukraine.
It's down on the ground, and our current special operations forces are feeling the aftermath of this abandonment and this withdrawal.
Why is there no coverage of this whatsoever except for maybe my show and and I would assume maybe other talk shows that I don't get a chance to listen to.
Because we have uh we have a complicit media uh and the the administration wanted this uh page to be turned.
Uh Republicans have tried to hold hearings in the House.
Of course, Pelosi squashes them.
They've had one in the foreign affairs committee, but they did it secret down in Shift Skiff uh so that the media couldn't cover it.
And the end of the day, look, politically, this was when uh things started to turn for the worse for Biden because he ran on two things compassion and competency.
And this was the most cold-hearted thing I've ever seen.
Uh, and it certainly was the most incompetent thing I've ever seen.
And we saw his poll numbers go south accordingly, and the last thing a compliant media wants to do is to resurrect that.
So I think you might get a little bit of coverage over the over, you know, this one year of of uh debacle, but then they're they're gonna want to turn the page and talk about you know uh the big climate change victory that they had last week.
All right, quick break more with Congressman Mike Waltz on this, the one year anniversary where Joe abandoned Americans behind enemy lines in Afghanistan.
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Continue on this one-year anniversary since Joe Biden abandoned our fellow Americans behind enemy lines in the Islamic Emirates of Afghanistan.
Congressman Mike Waltz of the uh Florida 6th District is with us.
How do you get away with raising taxes on oil, gas, and coal uh when we're paying the highest gas prices we've ever paid, and we're also have a 41-year high of inflation.
And then how do you with the straight face tell Americans we're not raising taxes on anybody that makes uh less than 400,000 a year?
Well, and then uh you know, you layer on to that.
There's uh by most estimates about a thousand billionaires, and you need eighty-seven thousand IRS agents to go after them.
Hell no.
They're they're going after uh mom and pop businesses uh all over America.
But the thing that that you know uh that that I find the most outrageous is the 350 billion dollar giveaway to the Chinese economy that produces 90% of the world's solar panels, 70% of the world's wind turbines and control 90% of the lithium that goes into the batteries.
Those monies are gonna flow right over to Chinese manufacturing, which they produce, by the way, with coal.
So that I mean the the irony is is just rich and ridiculous uh all around.
But that's what happens when uh when we have the left running Washington, and uh, brother I am just counting the days till we can fire Nancy Pelosi and get control of the Congress back.
Well, it's less than a hundred days, so we're on our way.
Hopefully, Americans are paying attention like you are.
We appreciate your time.
Congressman Mike uh Waltz, former uh first Army Green Beret serving in Congress, the first one, uh, wrote the children's book, Dawn of the Brave.
Uh, it's on Amazon.com.
We have a link on Hannity.com, bookstores everywhere.
And you know what, your kids will actually learn something worthwhile as opposed to the average public school.
Uh thanks for being with us.
Yeah, thank you, Sean.
If I can add one more thing, when we do get control, uh, I'm calling for a Benghazi style uh uh uh commission, select committee to get to the bottom.
Those 13 gold star families deserve accountability, and to this day, not a single official, not a single general, nothing, has been fired, reprimanded, resigned uh because of this debacle, and I will never let this go.
And I want every veteran out there to hear me uh that we will get accountability, we will get to the bottom of how uh and who made these disastrous decisions.
Um look, I totally understand, and I hope we we get that opportunity come January.
Thank you, sir, for being with us, Congressman Mike uh Waltz of Florida, 800-941 Sean on number if you want to be a part of the program.
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We do need a little bit of a break here, uh, which is why it's uh fun to bring back on the program, Adam Carolla.
By the way, New York Times best selling author uh in his own right.
And uh by the way, his latest book, Everything Reminds Me of Something, um, all part of his comedy routine.
We have a lot of issues involving people wanting to silence voices, especially, you know, comedians like Dave Chappelle, etc., which I think is nuts and insane.
Uh Mr. Carolla, sir, how are you?
I'm doing well.
Thanks for having me.
Uh so what do you think of this mess?
Mar-a-Lago rated by the same FBI that lied about Donald Trump and Russia collusion for three years, the same FBI that used Hillary Clinton, his opponent's dirty paid-for Russian dossier, to get Pfizer warrants, uh, saying that the dossier was, quote, verified by them.
It turns out it was unverifiable because none of it was true, and now we're supposed to believe the FBI what they say in a warrant.
I don't believe them.
Well, here's what I was saying on my podcast, Sean.
I have no idea what's inside Donald's compound in Marylago.
But I will say this.
I see the same people I saw a year and a half ago telling us that Hunter by Blacktop was had all the earmarks of a Russian hoax and was uh, you know, driven by Putin.
Those exact same people are now back on CNN explaining that this was a legitimate raid and that we had every right to do it, and there must be something important.
So pardon me if I don't have one eyebrow raised just a little bit.
I feel like between the FBI and the CDC and Fauci, I no longer listen to anything that these people say.
I assume it's a lie, but I just want to verify and vet everything.
And I never would have done that two or three years ago.
If you said the FBI says Fauci says the C V C says, I would have gone, oh, well, that must be exactly what's happening.
Now I I don't know.
And that's a whole lot of things.
I'll take it a step further.
I mean, we gave Fauci the benefit of the doubt in the beginning of this, and we even gave you margin of error because nobody in the beginning really knew anything about what COVID nineteen was about.
So it would be normal that people that are smart, they're making their the best educated guests, trying to give their best advice, but over a period of time, they they were wrong on everything.
And I they weren't even occasionally right.
So if you ask me if I'd ever trust the CDC, the NIH, Fauci, uh Walinsky or Biden or any politician ever talking to me about my health in the future, the answer is hell no.
I'm never listening to them, ever.
Yeah, well, the problem with Fauci is remember when he was getting grilled by Rand Paul, I think it was Rand Paul, and he he was asking about Black Lives Matter rallies and parades, and he said he didn't have any opinion on that.
He was he was compromised at that point during that hearing.
That was almost two years ago, where he said, you know, gatherings at churches, gatherings at football stadiums, all bad.
So what about gatherings for a BLM rally?
He said, I have no opinion.
At that point, I realized he was compromised, so we didn't have to listen to him.
And what about all the stuff he said?
Like he didn't know about natural immunity.
We didn't he don't know about natural immunity.
What are we listening to you for?
He he got stuff wrong and he lied.
The FBI is just lying at this at this point.
I don't know how many different ways they can go after Trump, and I have no idea why they think we're gonna go along with it, why we should believe them.
It is the the group that cried wolf.
You know, it it's worse than that.
Look, I I you don't dig into the weeds of politics as much as I do.
Uh you you certainly are a better expert on on cultural issues than I am, but the two worlds do connect in a lot of ways.
And all I know is for three years we were told by the FBI top their top echelon, their top officials.
Now, I gotta step back and tell you that I I had a reverence growing up my entire adult life on radio and TV for law enforcement.
My whole family comes from law enforcement.
Uh my mom was a prison guard.
I had so many relatives that were cops on the MYPD.
There were two members of my family that made it to the FBI.
They were they were deity in my family.
They were they were like, you know, here's God and there they are.
And so I had this reverence, and and I still believe ninety-five percent are are good people that that put their lives at risk for us.
But when we discovered that they had an insurance policy to ensure that Donald Trump would never win, you lost your credibility and you lost your trust, especially with all things Donald Trump.
And and here's the worst part, Adam.
Now the one of those people that signed those false warrants ever got held accountable.
If you lie to a judge, I promise you, Adam Carolla, you will go to jail.
I will go to jail.
Everyone listening to this program would go to jail.
Well, look, I like to play a little game called stupid or liar, whether you're talking about FBI or you're talking about Fauci.
Is Fauci stupid or is he lying?
It doesn't matter.
Either way, he needs to be removed.
And I feel the same way with the FBI.
You are the same people that said the steel dossier was r was real and Hunter Biden's laptop was fake.
So either you're lying or you're horrible at your job.
But either way, you need to go.
Well, you raise a good point.
Hunter Biden is uh I I don't know if you've ever heard of Kiawa Island, it's in South Carolina.
They're in they're apparently living in a friend's twenty million dollar mansion this week.
We know from all the reporting that has come out that there's evidence of multiple crimes on that laptop.
Now, I ask you, Adam Carolla, if we had equal justice under the law and equal application under the law in this country, uh, would we not go and raid Hunter Biden's home?
Why why they've had it for two years, this laptop.
Christopher Ray last week acted like he knew nothing about it.
They've had it for two years.
So if if we had equal justice, wouldn't they treat him the same way they treated um Donald Trump?
And by the way, that that laptop implicates his father, the big guy, Joe Biden on all of these deals.
Look, uh, first things first.
It's diabolical because what they do is they slow vote these investigations, and then when they get thrown up for questioning, they go, I can't comment on an ongoing investigation.
Well, what if the investigation never ends?
You can't comment on it.
You know, really think about how diabolical that is.
We will say this house is under construction and we can't comment on it, and we'll never finish the job.
And that's basically what they're doing with Hunter Biden.
It's it's insane.
It's also um it's it's not their fault, though.
I mean, it is their fault, but this is partisan politics and they're defending their own.
Where's the media on Hunter Biden?
Where is big tech?
I mean, I know what they're doing.
They're canceling people and taking stories down and calling it a hoax.
But the people who aren't doing their job as it pertains to the Hunter Biden story is the media.
They it has all the earmarks.
I I get it, but listen, what do they hate most?
Like what's the mainstream media hate most?
What's CNN and MSNBC?
They hate nepotism, they hate rich white guys, they hate old rich white guys, they hate China, they hate Russia.
Uh it's all there.
Fruit salad filled with CNN's favorite subject on the other side.
You know, it it's just phenomenal to me as you watch all this unfold, you know, that there are not more people on the left that see the danger in this.
You know, I know you uh like Bill Maher and I kind of hate each other.
He hates me, and I'm not a big fan of his.
Although it's people like me when he was doing politically incorrect and other conservatives that said that show should not get canceled.
It was conservatives that are in favor of free speech.
I don't want any show canceled.
I don't want any comedian canceled.
Um I think one of the reasons, and he's made this observation himself, is that conservatives are are quoting him occasionally now is because the left wing in this country has gone so far overboard.
You know, the the earth is gonna be over in twelve years.
Um we're not gonna produce any any energy domestically, but it's okay to beg Iran and Russia and Venezuela and the Saudis and OPEC, which makes zero sense to anybody that has half a brain.
And then they tell you lecture you to get an electric car, which is 20 grand more than uh than a gas car, uh a gas-powered car, and most Americans can't afford it, especially with the record 41-year high record of inflation and record high gas prices.
Well, look, something happened to the left, but as I as I always tell people, it's called the progressive movement.
It's got progress in movement right in the title.
And people like you and I go, when are you ever gonna pump the brakes?
I mean, I look some of the stuff they used to talk about eight or ten years ago.
I went, yeah, that sounds all right.
Uh it makes sense.
All right, I'm on.
I'm I'm with you on that one.
But they just blew right past it, and they just keep going.
And you wonder like, what is the end game?
And I don't know that there is an end game, but it's called the Progressive Movement.
They never pump the brakes.
It's not what they're there to do.
They, you know, the conservatives want to be left alone, enjoy our family and enjoy our country, you know, pay our taxes, and don't rob any liquor stores, and we're we're fine.
We're we're essentially wanting to be left alone.
Pretty much just don't touch my liquor store no matter what you do.
If you're gonna rob a store, rob Target, rob Walmart, don't rob the liquor store.
Go to the scented candle shop on the corner and never go in there.
I'm sure you're there often.
Um how do you describe yourself politically?
I've never asked you.
I don't even know.
I come from liberal, very strong liberal family.
And so I I I got a front row seat.
My mom was, you know, welfare and food stamps, my grandmother was almost sort of a communist for a while.
And I got a front row seat to that, you know, in the 70s, and I kind of realized that's not where I wanted to go.
Um I've always been a fan of sort of free market capitalism.
I've also been kind of liberal, uh, so to speak on consensual crimes, you know, prostitution, drug use, things like that.
You know, if you wanted to if you wanted to pay a lady and bring her back to the apartment, that was your business.
That wasn't my business.
Uh you know, I'd like a I'd like a stout border.
Uh I I I hate big regulation.
I used to be a builder, and I built in Los Angeles, California, so I know what the regulatory system can be and how stifling it can be.
We have the we have a common background.
I worked in the construction a long time.
Yeah, so I got a front row seat to the big, you know, Department of Building and Safety.
So I'm I'm basically conservative economically, fiscally, uh sort of socially, you know, gay marriage, you want to smoke pot, you know as long as you're not hurting anybody, you know, that's fine.
I just I don't like big government.
I want to shrink government down.
And that's about where I'm at.
Now, that then makes me, you know, a hard right guy now in the eyes of society, but I'm I've never been that way.
I've never changed any of my views.
It's just the left went so hard left that they lost a lot of people who used to be on their side of the aisle.
I I think I think it's true.
Do you go further in terms of libertarianism and support legalizing all drugs?
I think that would be insane.
You know, look, I live in Los Angeles.
I've seen what happens when we just tell people, do whatever you want.
We're not getting involved.
It is homeless encampment, encampments everywhere.
It's literally tents and biscuit, plastic and plywood, makeshift plywood shelters like strewn about everywhere.
I understand what happens, and we've seen it in San Francisco, you've seen it to in New York to some degree.
Like the government can no longer just step back and say, you know, you're free to do whatever you want without it turning into what Los Angeles has turned into.
Now, if you would have asked me 20 years ago, I probably would have went, yeah, I don't see what's wrong with that.
But I got a front row seat to it here in Los Angeles.
Quick break more with Adam Carolla on the uh other side of his website, Adam Corolla.com, if you want to get his book or find his tour dates.
All right, we continue with Adam Carolla, all things Adam at Adam Corolla.com.
I really don't want to run into those people that are high on crack that are that are strung out on meth or strung out on heroin.
Um that would that would literally, you know, rob their beat the crap out of their own grandmother for more money to get their their drugs.
I don't really want to be around those people.
I don't know, maybe I'm prejudiced.
And also uh I'm not sure.
Maybe that's toxic masculinity.
Somebody pointed it out to me on my podcast, which is they said, what about that person?
What about that 23-year-old who's gonna OD and living in the streets?
What if that was your son?
What if that was your daughter?
Like, don't we don't we owe it to that person, try to get them some help, or are we just gonna go just let them do your own thing?
Exactly.
If we're gonna do something, it should be here as a drug center.
Here's a place where you can take a shower.
Here's a place where you can get maybe soup and bread and have some something in your stomach, and here's a place where you can talk to drug counselors on how you can get off this crap.
That that I mean, if we're gonna do anything, that would be the most responsible thing.
But anyway, congrats on the uh new book.
Um every every uh reading everything reminds me of something.
And that's your live comedy show as well.
It's it's this everything reminds me of something.
Everything reminds me of something.
Advice, answers, but no apologies.
And uh are you on tour now or are you just doing your podcast?
I'm doing my podcast, and I go out and do live dates and do stand-up shows and and that kind of stuff, and you can go to AdamCorler.com if you want to find when I'm coming to a town near you.
All right.
Well that there's a warning for everybody that has zero sense of humor.
Don't show up.
If you don't want to hear a joke, don't go.
If you s if your sensibilities are that bad, don't go.
Uh anyway, appreciate you being with us, Adam.
Good luck, and uh thanks for taking time to be with us.
Thanks, John.
Appreciate it.
Quick break right back.
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