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Jan. 4, 2023 - Sean Hannity Show
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John Solomon - January 3rd, Hour 2
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A lot going on today.
Obviously, our top story is watching what's going on in terms of the battle for the position of Speaker in the House with the Republican majority.
And hopefully that gets resolved soon.
I'm not as wigged out as everybody else.
However, as I told many of these people, they ought to have gone into a room, sat down before today, hammered out their differences.
I mean, the motion to vacate, which McCarthy gave into, which I think was a bad idea, especially at a number like five, that means at any given moment, five people can say, I don't like you anymore.
Let's have another vote for Speaker.
Not exactly the stability you want and not one team pulling the cart in one direction.
Maybe if it was 20 people motioned to vacate, that would make more sense.
We're not going to take our eye.
When the Republican Congress gets up and running, we do know that Congressman Jim Jordan is investigating whether the FBI has, in fact, been involved in abusing power, whether the DOJ has been weaponized, the FBI has politicized.
And then we have a subsequent but dovetailing investigation into the Bidens.
And it's an investigation into Joe Biden specifically, according to Congressman James Comer, who will be leading that investigation.
We have justthenews.com editor-in-chief, John Solomon, investigative reporter, has now pointed out in an article that he put up today that a lawsuit is alleging that the DOJ is concealing documents on Hunter and Jim Biden and foreign payoffs.
Now, we learned a lot of things.
We know that Joe Biden lied when he said that he had never once spoken to Hunter about his foreign business dealings.
Well, then why did he demand that a prosecutor in Ukraine get fired?
Then we have photographic evidence of Hunter and Joe and foreign business partners.
Then we have chronicled a series of meetings anywhere up to 14, and we'll learn more and more details as these hearings move forward that involved Hunter, Joe, and Hunter's foreign business partners.
But anyway, Hunter's own operations fell into the public eye because of the New York Post story about the Biden laptop.
Then we have the issue of the FBI putting their thumbs on the scale of the 2020 election.
We learned that a number of FBI agents were having weekly conversations with big tech groups like Twitter.
This was revealed in the Twitter files that the head of the FBI unit involved in this had written his 2016 thesis about how Donald Trump and Russia colluded to help Donald Trump win the election in 2016, which has been totally debunked.
Anyway, so he obviously has a political agenda.
And then the head of site integrity, a guy by the name of Roth for Twitter at the time, said that, yeah, they would have weekly calls with the FBI and they were being warned that this information may be coming out in the weeks leading up to the election.
The FBI had in December of 2019 Hunter Biden's laptop.
They had all the time in the world to vet its authenticity.
Turns out that it's all true, but they didn't do so.
And they were even mentioning, according to Mr. Roth, that this information might even be about Hunter Biden.
Hence, three weeks before the election, when the news breaks in the New York Post, all of big tech, they simultaneously say, oh, well, the FBI is telling us we can't run this.
Internally, we know that was happening.
Anyway, Hunter's operations about all of this.
The Department of Justice now has allegedly attempted to thwart the release of 400 pages of documents on Hunter and Jim Biden's dealings with China, Russia, Ukraine, saying that a lawyer seeking their release under the Freedom of Information Act,
Kevin Evans is his name, he's suing the DOJ, contending the agency did not comply with his FOIA request and that it had admitted in court and documents that he sought existed and is now trying to deny the fact, according to the Daily Mail.
Anyway, John Solomon has put it all together and he joins us now.
What's the latest on this?
Well, listen, I think this is a harbinger of what we're going to see when Republicans begin to dig in to the Hunter Biden investigation with their subpoena authority.
We saw this with Ron Johnson and Chuck Grassley back in 2020.
They were denied documents.
They were given a bogus briefing by the FBI, according to the senators.
This lawsuit by this lawyer is, I think, a harbinger of what we're going to see.
The Justice Department is going to fight tooth and nail, as well other agencies, to keep from the American public all of the facts, perhaps the most difficult facts for the Biden family to accept when they become public.
And so the government is putting it some on the scale right now in a FOIA battle.
It's likely to put it some on the scale in these early congressional fights when oversight begins.
And of course, it definitely put it some on the scale going all the way back to 2019 when it began an effort to keep mainstream media and from Twitter users from learning the truth about the business deals of Hunter Biden.
I think that's what we see in the Twitter files, clearly what we see in Kevin Evans' lawsuit.
And again, we saw a little bit of this in 2020 when Ron Johnson and Chuck Grassley were thwarted from getting some of the information they requested, even though they were chairman of committees at the time in the United States Senate.
What did you make of the December 22nd release?
This was on FoxNews.com, that the FBI, they declined to specify what other social media companies that the agency gave money to after Fox News confirmed that it paid Twitter nearly $3.5 million.
In other words, FBI officials told Fox News that the nearly $3.5 million payment to Twitter was a reimbursement for the reasonable cost and expenses associated with their response to a legal process for complying with legal requests and a standard procedure.
Now, this gets to the heart of, I think, where Jim Jordan's Judiciary Committee is headed, and that is, did the FBI yet again?
We know the involvement of the dirty dossier.
We know that they were warned not to use the dossier in 2016.
They were warned in August of 2016 by Bruce Orr.
The FBI went over the pond to meet with Christopher Steele, offered him $1 million in early October of 2016.
He couldn't corroborate any of the documents.
He couldn't collect his $1 million.
But then by the end of the month, the FBI used it as the bulk of information.
Remember, Andrew McCabe, deputy FBI director, said without the dossier, there never would have been Pfizer warrants approved, but they still used what was unverified on a document that the heading says verified to get an opportunity to spy on Carter Page and through Carter Page the Trump campaign.
There is an extraordinary moment today.
Just a little while ago, I spent some time with Chris Swecker.
He's the former assistant FBI director for the criminal division.
He ran all criminal cases across the FBI, and he's a proud FBI man.
He was praising the FBI for its work in the Idaho case.
The rank-and-file agents did a great job helping to narrow down the suspect in that case.
But he said something very profound to me today.
It's the first time I've ever heard him or any FBI alumni say this.
He said that the FBI has completely lost its independence, that it has become under the thumb of the Justice Department and a group of liberal ideologues that run the Justice Department.
He goes into great detail about why the FBI's loss of independence, when it becomes just a stooge of a political justice department, how the FBI loses the very thing that the government and Congress gave it when it set it up as an independent agency.
Very profound thoughts.
I think we're seeing that.
I think from Russia collusion forward, whether it's the treat the parents as domestic terrorists, whether it's force the FBI to go to the Twitter enforce censorship, or whether it was in the original Russia collusion story, what you see is the FBI acting at the behest of political appointees and yielding its independence, its independent judgment to political overseers in the Justice Department.
That dynamic, I think, is going to get more exposed in 2023 with Jim Jordan and James Comer and all the good investigations.
But remember, our Congress set up the FBI to be independent.
And now there are clear signs that it no longer is independent.
It's following the will of those lawyers in the Justice Department that want to create political consequences, settle political scores.
That's why so many people, including Kevin McCarthy, including Jim Jordan, are now on the record saying they support an independent church committee to go in and try to fix the FBI, restore its independence.
Sean, I think that's going to be a big debate in the 2023 timeframe.
All right, let's talk a little bit about what's been unfolding in Congress all day today, and that is this battle over the speakership.
And Kevin McCarthy, who has, you know, well over 200 votes, but you have some renegade Republicans.
Now, I understand McCarthy even gave in on the motion to vacate with a number five, which I think is insane because it creates a possibility of endless chaos for Republicans.
At what point do the American people get really ticked off at all of this and say, it's time for you all to make a deal?
There's nobody close to him in terms of being an alternative.
What do you do?
Yeah, it's a great question.
We haven't seen this in more than a century.
We're going to multiple ballots.
If we're a speaker, that hasn't happened since I think in the 1920s.
We're really at a moment where I think the Republican Party is exercising its frustration.
There has been a feeling among a small group of conservatives that the Republican Party keeps getting power.
And every time it gets power, it goes and does things like not investigate Russia thoroughly early on, like Paul Ryan, who thwarted a lot of the early Russian investigations.
I think this is a moment of protest.
At some point, Republicans will become pragmatic and they either will get behind Kevin McCarthy or they will find a consensus candidate that everybody can get behind.
But it's a moment for those who's especially that he gave into the motion to vacate, which means that at any point they can have a vote to get rid of him.
He's already pledged the investigation in judiciary with Jim Jordan.
He's already moving forward with the Biden family investigation.
There will be an investigation into the origins of COVID.
And he gave in on the rule that also would allow the House to defund people, which I think is a really big moment for conservatives.
We'll have to see.
I think Kevin McCarthy is betting that as more votes go on, that some of the protesters will yield and that he can pull this out.
He's made a lot of concessions.
Here's the thing.
His concessions didn't get him any more votes.
The same 19 lawmakers that we've identified for two or three weeks, well, they voted against him in the first vote.
So he gave a lot of concessions without picking up votes.
And I think, as you said, I think the best thing is, why don't they get in a room and solve this?
Why let this play out in the open?
We don't know the answer yet.
Why they couldn't get a deal behind closed doors.
But what I do know from my reporting is that this is a moment of protest.
These 19 Republicans think the party has had 10 years to do things and it keeps squandering it.
And they don't want that record to continue on.
They're tired of the Paul Ryans.
They're tired.
I'm with everybody.
I mean, what we saw unfold towards the end of last year with this omnibus budget bill is unforgivable to me.
It is.
It is.
And just keep in mind, since Mitch McConnell became, this is an amazing factoid.
It's 20 years ago this month that Mitch McConnell moved into Senate leadership.
He was elected whip.
He then became leader.
In the 20 years, at the day that Mitch McConnell took his leadership position, the national debt stood at $6.7 trillion.
Today it's at $32 trillion.
What does that mean?
80 plus percent of the national debt our country has accrued over 246 years has occurred on Mitch McConnell's watch as a leader, as a Senate leader, not just as a senator, but in a leadership position.
Those are some of the things driving these Republicans to give this protest vote.
At some point, they'll reach consensus because they know they want to start these investigations.
They know the American people didn't vote for drama.
They voted for progress.
And Americans are looking for how do we fight China?
How do we find out what really happened with COVID?
How do we find out what really happened with the vaccines?
There's a great moment for Republicans to rally and start that business.
I don't think it's going to be in the next few hours.
I think it may take a few days for a consensus candidate to emerge.
All right, quick break more with John Solomon, editor-in-chief, investigative reporter, justthenews.com.
Your calls on the other side, 800-941-Sean, if you want to be a part of the program as we continue today.
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And I'm Carol Markowitz.
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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.
I'm Ben Ferguson, and I'm Ted Cruz.
Three times a week, we do our podcast, Verdict with Ted Cruz.
Nationwide, we have millions of listeners.
Every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, we break down the news and bring you behind the scenes inside the White House, inside the Senate, inside the United States Supreme Court.
And we cover the stories that you're not getting anywhere else.
We arm you with the facts to be able to know and advocate for the truth with your friends and family.
So down a verdict with Ted Cruz Now, wherever you get your podcasts.
All right, well, with John Solomon, editor-in-chief, investigative reporter, just the news.com.
What do you make of this political wire report?
In a private meeting yesterday, Congressman Gates, Congressman Boebert, Scott Perry told Kevin McCarthy they don't mind if their speaker vote goes to plurality and Democrat Hakeem Jeffries is elected because they will fight him.
I mean, how stupid is that?
Again, I think that's anger talk and not common sense talk.
I don't think it gets to that point.
I don't think any Republican wants to spend two more years under a Democratic speaker, not after what we saw with January 6th Committee, not after what we saw with all of this reckless spending.
I think it's all posturing, right?
And behind the scenes, there's emotion, there's anger, and there's also posturing.
And I think all of that's going on.
The Republicans will find a consensus candidate.
It may very well be Kevin McCarthy when it's all said and done.
I think I've heard a lot of people say this to me, including Republicans who really like Kevin McCarthy, saying that Kevin McCarthy missed an opportunity to resolve this in the fall, that he waited until after the election to start making concessions, and that the real time was to go in in the summer and fall when he knew there were these renegades and start to work with them in a way that would be constructive behind the scenes.
That may be a missed opportunity.
Many of Kevin McCarthy's own backers are telling me that privately, that this could have been resolved in the spring and summer, way before it got to this drama.
Now, whatever the case is, it's going to play out.
And much like Goldwater in 64 led to Reagan, I think good things are ahead for the conservative movement once it resolves this leadership question.
All right, John Solomon, editor-in-chief, investigator reporter, justthenews.com.
Thank you, sir.
We appreciate you being with us.
Thank you and happy new year.
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All right, 25 to the top of the hour, 800-941 Sean.
If you want to be a part of the program, I know we're following the story of these votes for Speaker of the House as now the House vote will be moved to a second ballot and third ballot and God knows how many other ballots.
Am I worried about it?
No.
Do I believe this threat that some of these Republicans will somehow be willing to work with Hakeem Jeffries?
No, I don't believe it at all.
The other big story, one of a couple of big stories we're following today, is what happened last night during the game when Buffalo Bills' safety.
DeMar Hamlin suffered literally a cardiac arrest while they were playing Monday night football against the Bengals.
And the game was called.
Let's go to the call of Joe Buck and Troy Aikman, the call of the play that Hamlin was injured on.
You're essentially a weak side linebacker in the run game as well.
His hand is wide open to midfield and lowers the shoulder for 13.
This works Joe Burrow is so good.
And now another Bills player is down.
Tell exactly who that is.
Maybe Hamlin.
Jordan Foyer was able to go tonight.
He was iffy.
Their only Pro Bowler on this very good defense.
Hamlin's taking a place for the injured Micah Hyde.
And that is DeMar Hamlin.
A big piece of this defense for Sean McDermott.
Then Joe Buck discussed the timeline.
Remember, he stood up after that hit.
This, by football standards, this was not a head-on collision.
This was an average football hit, right to the chest, right to the heart.
And then his heart stopped.
And anyway, here's Joe Buck discussing the timeline.
DeMar Hamlin fell at 8:55.03, was on his back, and it went from wondering what was going on to wondering about head injury to then them frantically administering CPR to this 24-year-old safety.
And this is a Bills team.
During the break, we watched Sean McDermott call his team over and say, we're going to say a prayer.
We're going to say a prayer for DeMar.
So you saw something last night.
Now, what we're knowing is he suffered cardiac arrest following this hit.
They spent a good nine minutes using CPR.
They brought out the paddles.
They revived him.
An ambulance was brought on the field.
He's now in a hospital.
We're told that his heartbeat was restored on the field, transferred to UC Medical Center for further testing and treatment.
We don't know.
We do know he was in critical condition.
We know he's been intubated, none of which is good at all.
We also saw an amazing human moment last night, and that was players on both teams that literally sort of created a circle so that this guy could have some privacy while this medical emergency treatment was being handled.
Ultimately, the game was canceled.
I think the right decision in the end, in my humble opinion.
And, you know, hopefully there's not going to be any long-term damage.
Hopefully, they got his heart restored fast enough that this didn't impact in any way his brain or any other part of his body.
And obviously, people, you know, want a speedy recovery.
You know, Linda, you think all the times we've talked about no politics and football, and all the times I've spoken about how what I love about sports is it crosses every socioeconomic barrier.
You have people of all backgrounds, all races.
They get together.
They have a common passion, a sport.
They have a common passion, a home team.
You know, strangers high-fiving other strangers.
And I always said, I don't want politics inserted into sports.
Last night, I thought you saw the best in the players, the best in people, fans on both sides, just wanting, you know, DeMar Hamlin to be well.
Yeah, and I think, you know, I read a story later on of T. Higgins, who was the player who hit him on the Bengals, and he actually went to the hospital and met up with DeMar's mom and was just like, I'm so sorry.
Like, I'm the one that hit him.
And she's like, it was a clean hit.
It was a legal hit.
You didn't do anything wrong.
You know, it's a really sad moment.
And I don't think there was a single person that watched it, myself included, that wasn't, my heart just broke as any mother watching their child play a sport, whether they're in flag football or Peewee baseball or whatever, soccer, up to the pros, you know, college football.
It's hard to watch when, you know, these kids are hitting each other.
And these are big kids.
You know, these are all state athletes, you know?
The best of the best by far.
I mean, we have our gladiator sports.
We have football, right?
We have boxing.
We have mixed martial arts, as you know, that I love.
And you have these really incredible athletes, the best of the best.
And I saw them all many in tears last night, knowing the severity of what was going on.
Look, every player knows that their careers could end at any minute.
You know, look at Joe Theisman, who's a friend of this program.
Remember the hit he took from Lawrence Taylor?
It was a clean hit, but it ended his career.
And the average lifespan, career lifespan of an NFL player is, what, less than four years?
Yeah, it's usually two to three.
And it's just hard.
It's hard.
I mean, they're getting beaten up.
They're getting injuries.
They lose seasons.
Not all their money is guaranteed.
It's tough.
In this case, we're just following suit and praying for his speedy recovery for sure.
And for his family.
Yeah, of course.
Of course.
All right, let's get to our busy phones as we say hi to Chris is in Mississippi.
Chris, hi, how are you?
Glad you called, sir.
Thank you, Sean, for taking my call.
What's going on?
I believe we need to vote every single person out of office.
In two years, we vote a third out.
In two years, we vote the other third out and then the other third out.
They cannot stick together to save their souls.
The Republican Party does not stick together for anything.
They don't.
They make fools out of us.
They say that they're going to investigate Hunter Biden and President Biden.
That's a waste of time, in my opinion, to investigate Hunter Biden because no matter what.
Well, the investigation, according to James Comer, is about Joe Biden, about the president, and whether or not there was, you know, whether they sold access at the highest levels of our government, which would be unprecedented and beyond impeachable.
This is a real investigation.
And this is a guy that every single time they bring up Hunter Biden, they say, but we're not, Hunter Biden's not in office.
President Biden's in office.
So quit wasting time with Hunter Biden and just focus 100% on President Biden, on his taxes, on whatever they got to do, impeach that man like they did Donald Trump three different times and go after him with everything.
But they have to stick together, which they're not doing.
They're not doing now.
I'm not at a point where I'm that concerned yet.
I think people, this is an ongoing, never-ending negotiation that we're watching unfold.
Should all of this have been handled behind the scenes?
Yeah, I was in communication with many of these people.
And my advice was simple.
Get in a room, leave your egos and your cell phone at the door and hammer out an agreement that is acceptable to everybody.
And I said it to the people that matter.
I said it repeatedly.
And at one point even said, do you want to come to my house and talk?
Come to my house.
But look, everybody has their own agenda here.
Do I think it ultimately is going to work out?
I do.
And I just think it's going to take a little bit longer period of time than necessary.
But I know what I want.
The Republicans already are having investigations.
Republicans now are going to put their mark on spending.
They're going to lay out the agenda that's going to help save the country.
One thing McCarthy's done here is he's been very clear and specific of what he's going to do.
Now, he also gave in to the motion to vacate, meaning if they don't like what he's doing, if he doesn't keep his promises, well, they have that escape valve that's available to them at any time.
And that, to me, is a huge concession.
I just, I believe that in two years, nothing's going to happen because President Biden's going to veto every single thing they want.
Well, for now, and you know what?
They won't be able to compare and contrast their vision for their failure on every one of the issues that we can mention here on the economy, on energy, on the borders, on pretty much every issue out there with what the Republicans are going to have to offer.
Look, to me, it's way too early to start talking about 2024.
Right now, it's about the Republicans using the power of the purse and the power to subpoena and the power of investigation.
And they need to get to work.
And spending a second time and a third time, however many times this takes is to me, a waste of time.
I'm not against everybody not being heard.
Look, I go back to the quote I used of Reagan.
And Reagan was a pretty smart guy.
And he's well known for helping people to get along.
And Reagan was very, very specific when he said, the person who agrees with you 80% of the time is a friend and an ally, not a 20% traitor.
That's a pretty powerful line by Reagan, don't you think?
I do.
Sean, do me one last favor.
Yes, sir.
Do not give up on this.
I'm not giving up on it.
Every single day.
You know, I got back from vacation, and over vacation, I spent a lot of time and reflection, and I realized that these times are so important that we've got to have these conservative voices that are heard.
And frankly, these people need to be pushed.
You know, Jim Jordan got the biggest applause of anybody today as he addressed the House about all of this.
And could not have been any more clear that the agenda that Kevin McCarthy is committed to is the Make America First Again, Make America, America First, Make America Great Again agenda.
And it is one that will aggressively pursue investigations that are long warranted, including the origins of COVID and the other ones that I mentioned.
Anyway, I appreciate it, my friend.
God bless you.
Happy New Year.
All right, back to our busy phones.
800-941-Sean, if you want to join us.
Let us say hi to Mike in Michigan.
Mike, how are you?
Glad you called.
Hi, Sean.
Happy New Year, sir.
Same to you.
Say, Sean, I'm with the guy that just called.
Look at, you know, the difference between the Dems and the GOP party is that Dems know how to play the game in a period.
I mean, the GOP is like a hockey team going on the ice with no game plan, and they're just skating around aimlessly.
I'm sorry, but people see it that way.
And I got a bad feeling about Kevin McCarthy.
I see him hanging around with the Democrats all over the place at parties.
And I don't think he's got the gut, Sean.
I just don't.
The one thing that the people that are opposing him asked for and received is the motion to vacate.
What does the motion to vacate means?
And I think the number is too low.
In other words, that at some point, if he doesn't keep the promises he's making today to the American people and the promises he ran on during the campaign, the commitment to America, commitments to America, and the investigations he has signed off on, including Jim Jordan's, including Jim Comer's, including the origins of COVID, including the disastrous withdrawal from Afghanistan.
If at some point he doesn't keep his word, they have a simple escape valve.
That's why it's, to me, it's irrelevant.
Why make this big deal today when they ought to be rolling up their sleeves, getting to work on that very agenda, which everybody supports?
It's not even 80-10.
We're talking about 95-5 here that Republicans agree on these items.
Well, Sean, I'll tell you what, they're going to have a hard time getting anything through anyways, and they got to be just mean and ugly and gritty.
And I'm sorry, Sean, but that's how they got to play it.
But you know what?
But you have to be realistic.
I want to be clear about this.
Just because they have a majority in the House and they'll pass bills that we want them to pass, I have no expectation that the Senate's going to pass it.
I have no expectation that it's going to be signed into law.
That's not the point on passing the legislation right now.
It is to show the country that they have a very different path and vision for the future than the Democratic Socialist Party.
Then when 2024 eventually comes around, then all of this is going to be on the ballot.
But I say this with a caveat is Republicans, they must adapt to the new voting systems that exist in the country.
This is not complicated to figure out.
If you look at Joe Biden's 2020 race or Federman's 2022 race or Katie Hobbes race, they were hiding in their basement.
They were running hundreds of millions of dollars in negative ads.
They weren't kissing babies.
They weren't taking selfies.
They weren't doing speeches.
There were no press avails.
They were doing ballot harvesting.
And they focused completely on ballots.
And Republicans have got to do what they do legally as good as, if not better.
And we've got to play that game as well.
And we have not been in the same arena.
You know, the old-style campaign convinced people.
Those days are gone right now.
And until we can get every state legislature to change it to something more simple, we're stuck with the system we got.
Anyway, appreciate the call, my friend.
God bless you.
Happy New Year.
But I'll hold them accountable, I promise you.
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