Sean Hannity Show - America vs. Weather Balloons - February 17th, Hour 3

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Feb. 17, 2023 - Sean Hannity Show

41:57

America vs. Weather Balloons - February 17th, Hour 3

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	When I told people, I was making a podcast about Benghazi.
	Nine times out of ten, they called me a masochist, rolled their eyes, or just asked why.
	Benghazi, the truth became a web of lies.
	From Prologue Projects and Pushkin Industries, this is Fiasco Benghazi.
	What difference at this point does it make?
	Listen to Fiasco Benghazi on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.
	Coming up next, our final news roundup and information overload hour.
	Hey, welcome back to the Sean Hannity Show.
	This is Jordan Seckey.
	I'm co-hosted with my dad Jay Sekulo.
	Uh, you may have heard us last Friday on Shawn's show.
	We appreciate Shod and the team at Shawn Hannity Show for having us back this Friday.
	So much happened in between last Friday.
	We started shooting down a lot more objects for Friday, Saturday, it's Sunday.
	A Friday shoot down, a Saturday shoot down, a Sunday shoot down.
	The people I feel really sorry for is the Northern Illinois bottle cap balloon brigade.
	Yes.
	They think it may have been their balloon that got shot down, which I said you could buy a whole kit for about 600 bucks.
	Yeah.
	What took us.
	It could go all around the world.
	400,000.
	Anyways, Rick Rinnell's with us.
	He is a former director of national intelligence, our colleague at the American Center for Law and Justice.
	Rick, I I want to start with this tragedy in Ohio with the EPA.
	We got, you know, airplanes hitting each other on the runways, almost having accidents when they're landing.
	You got train derailments.
	You got balloons being shot down.
	You know, one was a legitimate shoot down, except it should have happened like, you know, five days before.
	And then Pete Buttigieg is running the the in bi the Department of Transportation, which is a huge department.
	So my theory is don't put a small town mayor in charge of one of your biggest departments of government.
	You've run those things before.
	What's your sense?
	Look, I I think let's summarize.
	We uh allowed the Chinese to put a spy balloon all the way across the United States, and we never shut it down.
	And then we immediately shot down some weather balloons.
	So the first question is what's going on in the intelligence community?
	Why are we getting really bad information?
	Did Joe Biden get bad information?
	Did Joe Biden act without information?
	What's the disconnect between the intelligence community and the briefing of the president?
	You and I both know that if this would have happened under Donald Trump, there would be calls for investigations and leaks from the intelligence community by now.
	I think Avril Haynes, who's the director of National Intelligence, needs to come forward and be transparent.
	Transparency is not political.
	It's not partisan, but it's absolutely needed because the American public is losing faith in the intelligence community's ability to give uh rational safe secret information to the president.
	And we are tired of having uh intelligence collected information used for partisan purposes.
	Yeah, I mean, Rick would would we see the instance with the balloons?
	And now uh since we talked to you on our broadcast at noon at Easter and it uh took over Shaw's show uh for today.
	This was uh Admiral Kirby speaking on behalf of the National Security Council, and and he kind of said, Well, you know, at least we we figured out that the intelligence community said they're they're recreational, they're not from China.
	Take a list of this a cut one.
	What's the and there any feeling of frustration of perhaps this was a twelve dollar hobby balloon from a group of kids in Illinois after the fact.
	Again, given the information that we had at the time uh and the the legitimate concerns about potential surveillance in the wake of the Chinese spy balloon, uh you you make decisions based on the best information that you have.
	Um and ultimately you have to come down to some core principles uh uh when you're making decisions as commander in chief.
	Frankly, uh, given the circumstances in light of what happened with this spy balloon, wouldn't that be a better outcome if it turns out that they were in fact civilian or recreational use or a weather balloon and and therefore benign, which is what the intelligence community thinks, isn't that a better outcome uh than to have to to re to to think about the possibility of of greater threats to our national security?
	So Ricky goes right to the intelligence community there.
	That's why I wanted to play that by for you.
	And he acts like so I guess it was the intelligence community after the fact.
	Because it must have been that their intel before this to the president couldn't have been these are just small personal, you know, independent balloons, and and we don't think these need to be shot down.
	This seems like an after-the-fact intelligence assessment over and it makes more sense now why the pilots, some of these pilots that they've spoken out, they've uh anonymously, but they've said, you know, we didn't really know what we were shooting down, we've had this UFO discussion, we had all this crazy talk.
	And you realize now what they were describing was exactly what you could buy on Amazon.
	I think what's clear is that Joe Biden and the political people at the White House politicized intelligence twice.
	The first time they politicized it by telling the intelligence community, I know you see a Chinese spy balloon, but we're not gonna shoot it down.
	We're not going to panic over this because we really don't want to have a messy conversation with the Chinese when we're trying to come up with climate change language.
	That's the truth.
	And so they overruled the intelligence community.
	Rick, you're saying I want people to understand what you just said.
	They're more concerned about climate change legislation and negotiations and treaties than they are about intelligence gathering by the Chinese Communist Party in the United States.
	Yes.
	I I believe that the opposite of America First is having consensus with the Chinese or the Russians or the Europeans, trying to value a consensus, a a conversation that is calm and agreeable, that becomes the lowest common denominator of what both sides agree.
	They value that over putting America first, because let's let's be honest, they've manipulated intelligence, politicized it by in the second instance, by jumping to shoot down objects that clearly were not threat.
	And so the the big question that that our oversight committees in Congress have to ask is what did the intelligence community brief the president and the National Security Advisor?
	In both instances, we need to know what was the threat assessment.
	We need to understand what that information is, because if it was politicized by the White House, that's a big problem.
	If the intelligence community got it wrong, that's an even bigger problem.
	I I've got to follow this up though.
	We've got the I'm gonna play this statement.
	And this is another one that is is scary that uh Admiral Kirby talked about.
	When he talked about, you know, the Chinese, we're we're talking to them diplomatically, but our military isn't communicating.
	I mean, this is a serious statement, Rick.
	Take a listen to this, and I want to get your read on it.
	What's really important here, and I know the question was about uh President Biden and and President Xi, is that the lines of communication with the PRC remain open?
	Uh uh I recognize that there are tensions, but uh Secretary Blinken still has an open line of communication with the foreign minister.
	We still have an embassy in Beijing with a terrific ambassador, uh Nick Burns, um, and the State Department also can communicate directly with uh PRC's embassy personnel here.
	So the lines are open.
	Unfortunately, the military lines aren't open.
	And that's really uh what we would like to see uh uh uh amended.
	Uh and it was of course curtailed uh after Speaker Pelosi's trip to Taiwan.
	Um they curtailed because now they're blaming Pelosi.
	That's I think it's ironic.
	What it And we are not the military of the United States, our Secretary of Defense cannot get on the phone with the Minister of Defense from China.
	Rick.
	Well, I I think frightening is that Joe Biden also admitted that he hopes to talk to President Xi sometime in the future to calm the situation down.
	And my first question is, you haven't talked to President Xi yet?
	You haven't had a conversation and they put a five-balloon over our country.
	That should have been an immediate phone call to say, what the heck are you doing?
	And and also while you got him on the phone, you can say, let's let's have our people talk a little bit more at the military level or other levels.
	This is an outrage that that they haven't been able to fix this situation, even to the point of just clearing up and being transparent about what happened.
	We don't really know what happened, and we need to understand was it a fit was it a politization of the intelligence by the White House and Jake Sullivan, or was it an intelligence uh community failure?
	And let me finish with this.
	Nick Burns is our ambassador in China.
	We didn't we haven't even heard from him.
	He's been total, totally MIA.
	He is a disaster of an ambassador.
	He's been uh known to be tweeting positive uh content about the communist Chinese and how great their rail system is and their subway system is.
	I mean, he literally is caught by the Chinese in this diplomatic dance.
	He's complimenting them and he's unable to maybe he can consult or or have the Chinese Communist Party's Minister of Transportation and uh consult with with Mayor Pete, and then we'd get all their expertise.
	But let me say this is what's got me very, very concerned.
	These governments, these totalitarian regimes understand power.
	Now, that doesn't just mean military power, it means diplomatic power.
	Because diplomacy can be a form of war in one sense.
	Uh it's war without bullets being the bullets are the the negotiat the real negotiations, the real driving them back to the table.
	But when you're not speaking, it's very hard to do that.
	And I think the lack of power coming out of this administration, Rick, is the reason why the Chinese Communist Party thinks they can and have just run over us the last year and a half, two years.
	Well, we've learned the last two days is that we're not talking uh about calming the situation down and doing diplomatic um maneuvers with the Chinese, and we're not doing it with the Russians when it comes to Ukraine.
	We still don't have a peace plan.
	No one's talking about trying to do something peacefully in in Ukraine with Russia.
	We literally have just in Russia, uh, just with Russia, war options and and greater military conflict.
	And now we're on this path with China where we're not even talking.
	President Biden and President Xi aren't talking, and they're sending spy balloons over our country.
	Really, this is a crisis.
	Yeah, I mean, this is not the United States we were in just a few years ago.
	No, it's amazing what can change.
	I mean, they should they played us in two years, unbelievable.
	Yes, they've been expanding.
	Yes, we know there's been Rick Chinese expansionism all over the world.
	I mean, they have taken a Chinese first policy uh with their military too.
	They've spent heavily on their military, heavily on their intelligence.
	They have ports all over the world now.
	I mean, they're they're active in their business and they're bite-up layout in the U.S. We talked to Governor Dove earlier about that.
	But this idea, I mean, what?
	I think President Biden, when he addressed the nation yesterday, didn't put us all didn't make any of us feel better about our security or national security or our intelligence.
	No, he doesn't still doesn't know what the items were.
	So Rick, we're we're projecting weakness.
	There's no question that the world sees what we see here in the United States.
	President Xi has seen it, uh, President Putin has seen it.
	Don't forget, uh, I just uh I know this is a uh point on Russia, but it it's about the Biden weakness.
	When the Biden team came in, Joe Biden and his administration joined Senate Democrats, and they dropped the sanctions, the Trump sanctions on Putin's pipeline.
	They ushered in this war in Ukraine.
	That that immediate sense of weakness from Afghanistan to Ukraine, dropping those the Trump sanctions on the pipeline, uh And then getting lectured by the Chinese in Alaska early in this administration on our human rights record.
	This is a build-up.
	This is a constant messaging to the world that Joe Biden is weak.
	Don't forget that he took the Houthis off the terrorist list.
	And immediately the Houthis started sending missiles into the UAE.
	This is a problem from the Middle East to the Pacific.
	All the way to Europe.
	It's a real problem for the United States to have a leader that constantly messages weakness.
	We're not the only ones in America to see it.
	the entire world national intelligence as part of our team at the american center for law and justice as our senior advisor for global and international affairs and on matters of national And former director of national intelligence, former ambassador to Germany.
	Rick, thanks for being with us.
	We appreciate your insight as always.
	We've got more coming up.
	More on the situation in Ohio.
	What a tragedy.
	We're going to be back with more, including a really good in-depth discussion by someone that knows, a special agent in charge of the environmental protection agency, former retired.
	It would be fascinating to get his thoughts.
	Back with more in a minute.
	We'll be right back.
	Sleepy Joe just signed more executive actions in one week than most presidents did in their entire term.
	So much for a democracy.
	Looks like Joe is the new dictator.
	Hannity's on right now.
	Hey, Sean Hannity here from my friends at Lone Star Transfer.
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	Welcome back to the Shot Handy Show.
	This is Jordan Second here with my dad Jay Seculo.
	And we've been talking a lot about the main issues of the day.
	Of course, the Chinese, the balloon, because we've heard more from the White House, Kirby.
	We heard Biden yesterday.
	We talked about some of the ACLJ was we talked to you last week, last Friday on Sean's show.
	And we've had some victories.
	People joined.
	We had hundreds of people joined the ACLJ at ACLJ.org last week while we were on the show at co-hosting uh the show together for Sean.
	And we've had a victory in one of the cases we talked about.
	Yeah, and this was um students, pro-life students were harassed at the National Archives Museum.
	Again, National Archives can't seem to keep up with classified documents, but they can sure target pro-life students.
	These were high school students, some law students as well, older.
	And uh we went to federal court uh and we talked about this on the broadcast last week, and we got a preliminary injunction.
	So round one is a victory for the students and for free speech.
	At the same time, you heard from Pat Mahoney, who was protesting civilly and peacefully in front of the Chinese embassy.
	Chinese government said that public sidewalk is ours, not the United States.
	We said nope, it's the United States.
	And he was successful and able to carry out his protest.
	That happens because people like you have joined the American Center for Law and Justice.
	We're in a matching moment, which means any amount you donate to the SGLJ, which is tax deductible, uh, is matched.
	So if you donate $25, we get 50.
	Uh, that's how it works.
	I'm gonna encourage you to go to ACLJ.org.
	That's ACLJ.org, and you could become a member.
	And like Jordan said, over 500 of you became members last week.
	We'd love to see that happen again at ACLJ.org.
	We come back from the break.
	I want to talk about more on the situation in Ohio.
	The ineptness of the federal government here is unbelievable.
	We joined by retired special agent in charge of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.
	So you're not gonna want to miss that one.
	And again, if you want to follow us, it's uh on all the social media apps at Jordan Seculo at J Seculo, at Logan Seculo, at ACLJ, and Jordan and Logan have a podcast.
	We have a radio broadcast at noon, but Jordan Logan have a podcast, Seculobrothers.com.
	Back with more of the Sean Hannity program in just a minute.
	Back with more of the Sean Hannity program.
	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.
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	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 Podcasts, 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.
	What I told people I was making a podcast about Benghazi.
	Nine times out of ten, they called me a masochist, rolled their eyes, or just asked, why?
	Benghazi, the truth became a web of lies.
	It's almost a dirty word.
	One that connotes conspiracy theory.
	Will we ever get the truth about the Benghazi massacre?
	Bad faith, political warfare, and frankly, bullshit.
	We kill the ambassador just to cover something up.
	You put two and two together.
	Was it an overblown distraction or a sinister conspiracy?
	Benghazi is a rosetta stone for everything that's been going on for the last 20 years.
	I'm Leon Nafok from Prologue Projects and Pushkin Industries.
	This is Fiasco Benghazi.
	What difference at this point does it make?
	Yeah, that's right.
	Locker up!
	Listen to Fiasco Benghazi on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.
	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 Podcasts, 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.
	What I told people I was making a podcast about Benghazi.
	Nine times out of ten, they called me a masochist, rolled their eyes, or just asked, why?
	Benghazi, the truth became a web of lies.
	It's almost a dirty word.
	One that connotes conspiracy theory.
	Will we ever get the truth about the Benghazi massacre?
	Bad faith, political warfare, and frankly, bullshit.
	We kill the ambassador just to cover something up.
	You put two and two together.
	Was it an overblown distraction or a sinister conspiracy?
	Benghazi is a rosetta stone for everything that's been going on for the last 20 years.
	I'm Leon Nafok from Prologue Projects and Pushkin Industries.
	This is Fiasco Benghazi.
	What difference at this point does it make?
	Yeah, that's right.
	Locker up.
	Listen to Fiasco, Benghazi on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.
	Hey, welcome back to the Sean Hannity Show.
	This is Jordan Secular.
	Jason Sekio sitting in for Sean.
	We appreciate Sean and Linda, the team at the Sean Hannity show having us back this Friday.
	We talked to you last Friday.
	A lot has happened.
	A lot more attention.
	Rightfully so on what's been going on in Ohio since February 3rd with that trade derailment occurred.
	And it was not just a trade derailment, which this administration has tried to kind of talk about that as we've heard like, oh, well, there's a thousand of those a year.
	That's one thing.
	And we should handle that, by the way, with better infrastructure.
	It's not really acceptable.
	But all of those don't lead to toxic waste in waters.
	We saw the the rivers are blue.
	The fish are all dead.
	The wildlife is gone.
	The people are getting sick, and they're getting conflicting messages because the federal government has not really taken over.
	In fact, they've done FIBA denied Ohio's request, which is unbelievable.
	Uh, for to take the lead here.
	Yeah.
	And so you've got the EPA administrator and uh the governor of Ohio both giving conflicting information.
	I trust probably at this point the governor of Ohio more because he's actually there.
	No, I think so too.
	We're very fortunate that we've got someone that knows a lot about all of this, Jordan.
	Yeah, that's right.
	Nito Parada is a retired special agent in charge at the U.S. EPA.
	Uh spent a long career there.
	Nito, uh, I appreciate you joining the Sean Hannity show and join us today.
	Let me just ask you first.
	I mean, we are four uh 14 days into this.
	Uh is this where we should be 14 days in after a disaster like this?
	Absolutely not.
	And I hope um everyone can hear me clearly because I'd love to make sure that what I share with all of you is uh heard loud and clear.
	By the way, thank you for having me.
	Yeah, we can hear you great.
	Go ahead.
	Great.
	No, not at all.
	Um I I'd like to start with uh uh a little fact-finding, if I may.
	Um, before I became the special agent in charge of the protective detail, I was the uh special agent um in the inspector general's office of the United States EPA.
	And prior to that, I did eight years with the United States Secret Service as a special agent.
	So I do know a little bit about investigations.
	And I can tell you that what really canes me is that in November of 2012, uh there was a similar issue that occurred in New Jersey and Paulsboro, New Jersey, uh at the Mounthawk Creek.
	And I'm not sure if you remember, but basically the same chemical, about 24,000 gallons of vinyl chloride erupted and it was released uh uh hazardous chemical into the air uh at that time.
	And uh one of the things that was interesting for me to learn was that folks at that time were complaining similar to what the folks in East Palestine are complaining about.
	The throat, the dizziness, the rashes, right?
	And on top of it, there was a report that commented on the poor amount of follow-through, even though folks learned from social media, from friends and relatives and the news organizations.
	Information was slowly passed forward, and the communities uh had to basically pull uh on every every strand that was out there to get folks to do what they needed to do.
	So that to me pains me because here we are, 2023.
	We're repeating the same thing.
	As far as it comes to your uh specific question, I think the key thing here that's missing is federal presence, task force federal presence from all the agencies, not only the United States Environmental Protection Agency, but the U.S. Department of Transportation,
	the Health and Human Services Department, just name a few to lead on a task force to looking at uh any criminal activity broad, because remember the governor himself said some of those tankers were labeled non hazardous.
	That to me is a red flag.
	You know, that's interesting that you said that, um, Neo, because I'm I'm also thinking, because I've done a fair amount of work on investigations myself as a lawyer, and you you're right.
	You got to look at you kind of look at a whole government approach to these.
	It's shocking to me that uh the EPA basically is playing almost like it seems like a backseat role here.
	Uh and FEMA denied the assistance request from Ohio Jordan, right?
	I mean, they said no, and you're saying this should be a multi-agency task force dealing with this.
	Well, absolutely, because we're talking about the Ohio River, right?
	And we know how the Ohio River flows, right?
	It's not one state.
	So you can't say this is a state issue, the state of Ohio issue, because the air, the water, and the land that we use uh is uh beyond just uh the one thousand mile the one thousand mile radius uh uh uh concern that they basically uh outlined initially said, hey, if you're a thousand, I guess it's uh thousand uh one mile radius, they said is where we wanted to be concerned about.
	Well, what what happens when the wind blows?
	What happens when the streams and all the rivers start to flow and they go beyond just that area?
	It's it's a it's a federal issue, not a state issue.
	Plus you got Pennsylvania also involved because they're on the border.
	Common sense would dictate federal agencies taking the command presence and taking the lead investigatively from whether it's criminal civil or whether it is in the cleanup, remediation, and monitoring.
	And let everyone on uh in today listening to your show remember this.
	This is not hey, we tested the water, we tested the land, we tested the soil, we tested the air, and it's done by a private sector entity like Norfolk.
	That is not going to work, folks.
	No, and even the EPA administrator said, well, if it's a home that's been tested, now you talked about the size of that radius.
	It's in a home that's been tested, maybe I drink that water.
	He didn't say I would just drink the water in the area.
	No.
	So I mean there's a need just for bottled water.
	We're talking about just the basics.
	And yet we all pay taxes, you know, for exactly this moment.
	For this moment, so where the federal government could come in and assist our state, and if we need just the basics, like bottled water, we saw it during COVID.
	If we needed hospital set up, we needed more supplies, we've got to figure how do we do a better job of this.
	I mean, Flint, Michigan was another example of this too, where the basics are needed from the people, and they can't just flee.
	That's not the kind of situation they're in.
	Uh, nor could most people in any kind of situation.
	You can't just flee.
	So you've got to deal with the situation there, and and it's just even those basics need to be there.
	Correct.
	Who's conducting the testing?
	Number one.
	Number two, where are we conducting the testing?
	Common sense.
	I would love to see what's on the rooftops of the homes.
	How about that one?
	As someone once said, how about how about them apples in in a joking manner?
	But a serious issue, right?
	Where are we testing?
	Who's testing?
	And more importantly, okay, more importantly, why is this not a federal task force led by the agencies that I mentioned, as opposed to leading from behind.
	This is not a state issue because of the the damage and the the plume and how it's traveling down the Ohio River.
	We're impacting folks in West Virginia for quiet I left.
	So why is this a local issue?
	Well, I let me ask you this.
	It's interesting, because this is administration too that would love usually Job Siddharth says it's the federal government's role, it's the federal government's role.
	The state has no role.
	Every argument they make in court is on immigration, all these other issues is state has no role in this.
	It's our federal government, it's our issue if there's any kind of interstate play.
	You just went through all the different interstate play with multiple states in a river.
	So it had the air that flows, you know, from wherever.
	You at least three states are impacted here.
	Ohio, Bailey, Pennsylvania, pretty seriously, and West Virginia.
	Yeah.
	So you got three states, and right now, Nino, uh a lack of which is it fair to say there's from what you've seen, this is not the way a federal response is supposed to go.
	Absolutely.
	And more importantly, I will tell you, being at EPA for over 15 years, just around that time frame.
	The folks at EPA, this is what they live for, right?
	Come on, let's let's let's pull the covers and the curtains away here.
	This is what the EPA would live for is to fight for this, right?
	All these organizations are not all uh screaming at the hilltops about fixing and getting getting action in place.
	I was at Flint, Michigan.
	I saw truckloads of water being delivered.
	Bob of water.
	I I we were all over the news about Flint, Michigan.
	You guys remember that, right?
	Absolutely.
	Yes, of course.
	Why, why are we?
	Why is this issue being raised wholeheartedly by the local people brought to the attention of the people uh in America by the by tweets?
	This should be something that we as federal agencies should be on the ground dealing with hands first.
	And the sort of let me just say, uh Nino, as well, we really appreciate you joining us.
	So you're giving us this insight.
	Uh yes, former special agent of the EPA, and and I again it he's exactly right where he said, you know, too, this was not getting attention.
	It's because the news gave it attention.
	Twitter gave it attention.
	People spoke out.
	And the testing he was talking about too, but North Norfolk Southern was trying to give their be the head.
	You know, I was gonna I was gonna ask you this, Nino.
	We we now have it pretty much confirmed because Norfolk Southern said that they were sending a thousand dollar checks to people in those zip codes, which included a release language in the in the letter and in the check saying that this is a release of all claims and liability.
	So when you mentioned the idea of civil and criminal fraud issues, are you talking about the uh the train company themselves, which here would be Norfolk Southern?
	A hundred percent.
	Look at their press release that they had on uh the 13th of February, what they're doing and how they're taking the lead, and more importantly, why are they exclamation point a thousand times taking the lead on this?
	They should be in the corner.
	And who should be taking the lead is the federal government.
	They should have investigators on the ground, folks in Hasmart, independent of anybody else, like a crime scene, looking at everything.
	And here's my question to all of you.
	This happened on February 3rd, right?
	A day or two later, they had a control burn.
	They popped holes into those tankers to leak out the fuel, the chemicals, so they could do a control burn.
	Sounds like they had plenty of time to go to either plan B, C, or D, and not have to do a control burn.
	I'd like to know who made those decisions.
	I want to see the communication on that end.
	I'd like to freeze everyone's communication, starting with this company, to find out who made the backroom door deal.
	I'm doing a control burn.
	Look, I'm an avid hunter, as you know.
	I retired from the EPA, okay?
	I love the environment.
	I'm a Republican, but I believe in government oversight for these reasons.
	For these reasons.
	So this is a bipartisan.
	You know, this is the proper role of government.
	We appreciate you joining us.
	Nino Parada with all this insight uh from the EPA.
	Great information.
	Thanks for being with us.
	We really appreciate it.
	And again, our hearts and and prayers to the people in in this region.
	I I'm gonna say this again.
	The lack of you just said it perfectly, Jordan, the federal government's inability in this particular situation, to engage on so many issues.
	This is why you do pay party competitive.
	Yeah, sure it is.
	And it's also the life government is supposed good government, good civil government protects the welfare of its citizens.
	Yeah, life, liberty, pursuit of happiness.
	Can't do that if you're in East Palestine right now.
	No, in East Palestine, you're not doing that.
	And the and the reality is uh those people are really suffering.
	And shame on Norfolk Southern.
	I mean, you know, I know they're trying to explain it was a mistake that those letters went out.
	There are really good law firms that'll go to work on this.
	I'm telling you that right now, there is no doubt, uh, that are gonna push back on this because this was uh what a horrible tragedy.
	Those people were having a difficult enough time as it is.
	We have some senior staff that live in in from Ohio and they were telling us today um how serious this issue is.
	But um we're not gonna get off this.
	I know Sean's not either.
	We're gonna make sure we can see justice uh for these folks because it's serious.
	I I don't like the federal government's inability to coordinate.
	Czar that the China Commission doesn't seize the power where they're actually supposed to be in charge.
	No, they don't do it at the border.
	They don't do it during, you know, Chinese balloons flying over spying on us, and they don't do it when you have a toxic dump.
	Exactly why the EPA was created.
	That's not enough of a reason for them to jump in.
	Give me a break.
	Where are they?
	They're AWOL, absent without leave.
	More of the Sean Hannity program when we come back.
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	This is Jordan Second here with my Dad J Sekio.
	We appreciate Sean, the team having us back this week to host There was plenty to talk about.
	Boy, there sure was plenty to talk about.
	And again, um our thoughts and prayers with the people in East Palestine, Ohio.
	Horrible tragedy.
	Interesting what the special agent went Nino had to say in the last segment of the broadcast.
	Folks, let me encourage you also, and let me say thank you to the over 500 of you last week that joined the American Center for Law and Justice at ACLJ.org because we're in this matching moment, which we have again this week.
	Uh it's it's made a huge impact.
	We won a case in federal court and got an injunction against the National Archives, and that's because of your support of our work at the ACLJ at ACLJ.org.
	Also, a lot of great ways to get information, so I encourage you to go to ACLJ.org.
	Follow us on all our social media at Jordan Seculo at J Seculo at Logan Seculo at ACLJ, and also the Seculobrothers Podcast.
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	And you can go to ACLJ.org and get all the information there as well as our social media.
	It's been great hosting a huge thank you to Sean and Lynn and the whole team.
	Couldn't have done it without them.
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	If you want to support the work that we do at the ACLJ, it's a nonprofit organization.
	You can donate online with this matching moment right now at ACLJ.org.
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	Have a great weekend, everybody.
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