March 24, 2023 - Sean Hannity Show
40:53
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| This is an iHeart podcast. | |
| 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. | |
| 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. | |
| You want smart political talk without the meltdowns? | |
| We got you. | |
| I'm Carol Markowitz, and I'm Mary Catherine Hamm. | |
| We've been around the block in media, and we're doing things differently. | |
| Normally is about real conversations. | |
| Thoughtful, try to be funny, grounded, and no panic. | |
| We'll keep you informed and entertained without ruining your day. | |
| Join us every Tuesday and Thursday, normally, on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. | |
| 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 download Verdict with Ted Cruz now, wherever you get your podcasts. | |
| Coming up next, our final news roundup and information overload hour. | |
| All right, news roundup, information overload hour, 800-941-Sean, if you want to be a part of the program this Friday. | |
| All right, what a busy week it's been. | |
| It's been insane, actually. | |
| The week of the indictment that never happened and likely won't happen now. | |
| Or if it does happen, probably won't go anywhere. | |
| Then, of course, you got the great alliance between China and Russia and Iran and the Saudis. | |
| And now they're bringing Syria in. | |
| You know, you can't make this stuff up. | |
| The week that the Fed raised rates again, and of course, we're bailing out millionaires and billionaires out at Silicon Valley Bank. | |
| What a great week it's been. | |
| Anyway, joining us to do our weekend review, we have Carol Roth, former recovering investment banker. | |
| The great Mark Simone, the host of the morning show on our flagship in New York, WORAM710, Joe Concha, Fox News contributor, author of Come On Man, a bestseller. | |
| Welcome all of you to the program. | |
| Thanks for being with us. | |
| Hey, Sean. | |
| Hey, Sean. | |
| All right. | |
| Mark Simone, I'm going to start with you because Mark Simone is Mr. New York. | |
| Just so everybody knows, if there's an event in New York, the few that I've ever been to, Mark is always there. | |
| Mark MCs more events than any other person I know. | |
| It's amazing. | |
| Mark will never leave New York. | |
| It doesn't matter how much money they confiscate from him. | |
| He's still going to stay in New York. | |
| You stand by that, right? | |
| I spend hundreds of thousands a year just on coach checks. | |
| Code checks. | |
| I believe that too. | |
| All right. | |
| So last weekend, if you would have asked me, Hannity, what are the odds that Alvin Bragg is going to indict Donald Trump? | |
| I was in the high 90s at that point. | |
| Then as the week began to unfold, I dropped down. | |
| I think my first drop was to 72 and dropping fast. | |
| Then by maybe Wednesday or Thursday, well, I think Wednesday was 50-50. | |
| You know, now I'm down to the 10% area. | |
| And if he does it, it's only out of pride, not out of a belief that he could actually win the case. | |
| What did you think of what was unfolding all week? | |
| Because to me, it was fascinating. | |
| Well, this guy is one of these left-wing woke George Soros-funded DAs, and he never puts anybody in jail. | |
| He just lets them all go. | |
| So I think the problem is he has no experience actually prosecuting anybody. | |
| He's not used to actually going to a courtroom with a case. | |
| No, but no, he actually has a track record. | |
| He fails 49% of the time when he tries a felony case. | |
| 49%. | |
| That's pretty bad. | |
| That's really bad. | |
| And listen, Michael Cohen, nice guy in real life, but definitely Fredo Corleone. | |
| Anybody would put him on the witness stand. | |
| It's got to be crazy. | |
| And nobody could figure out this charge. | |
| Alan Dershowitz said in his 50 years in the legal business, this is the single weakest case he's ever seen in his life. | |
| It's got no shot. | |
| Bragg is a persecutor, not a prosecutor. | |
| And if you're a good Democrat, there is such a thing out there. | |
| I don't know how you sit still for this solemnist show trial. | |
| This is not what you're supposed to do. | |
| Okay, you say if you're a good Democrat. | |
| Fair enough. | |
| That's a great statement. | |
| Now, my only point is, where's one Democrat that has spoken out saying this is stupid, except for Van Jones? | |
| And Dershowitz, and that's it. | |
| That's about it. | |
| I mean, you know, the whole Democratic Party, they sit back and watch it. | |
| And by the way, what goes around, comes around. | |
| Mark my words. | |
| I don't think when Joe Biden leaves office that his family should expect much different treatment. | |
| Anyway, Carol, what's your take? | |
| Yeah, I mean, I feel like this is something that wasn't really on my March Madness bracket, but probably should have been. | |
| I kind of feel like they're trying to make Trump a martyr here as a way to lift his profile vis-a-vis DeSantis. | |
| You know, they're letting him fundraise off of this. | |
| You know, they're kind of using this as a way to kind of pit the two between each other. | |
| So I wonder if there's some other nefarious purpose in creating more division in the Republican Party, given the fact that they don't really seem like they believe they can win the case. | |
| What do you think, Joe Contra? | |
| I'll give you the media perspective. | |
| I just find it utterly hilarious, guys, that MSNBC, CNN, all these other networks, not named Fox, put Michael Cohen on the air as if he's the next Michael Avenatti, because he is, and hold him up as a beacon of truth. | |
| This is what the entire case is laying on right now, is Michael Cohen a conviction. | |
| Well, wait a minute. | |
| You do know, Joe Concha, that Michael Avenatti was tweeting from jail on this case. | |
| You are aware of that, correct? | |
| Of course he is. | |
| He's a narcissist. | |
| This is what he warned. | |
| He said there are many critical facts and pieces of evidence, texts, emails relating to the hush money scandal that have yet to see the light of day. | |
| He said, and they will unfortunately be very damaging to the prosecution if Trump stands trial. | |
| At this point, you simply can't build a case on the testimony of Cohn and Daniels. | |
| Wow. | |
| Okay. | |
| Well, good for him. | |
| I mean, this guy was presidential material at one point. | |
| I think Humpty Dumpty was going to be his campaign manager. | |
| Here's the two big things that I think happened this week, Mark Simone. | |
| One, I don't know if you saw the interview I had with Bob Costello. | |
| Now, he went before the grand jury on Monday. | |
| We interviewed him the next day, or Tuesday or Wednesday. | |
| You know, these days all run together. | |
| And what he said, that Michael Cohn's a serial liar. | |
| And then he went into great specificity and detail that Michael Cohn was even suicidal. | |
| And he asked Michael again and again and again, do you have anything on Trump? | |
| And he kept saying, no, I have nothing on Donald Trump, nothing whatsoever on Donald Trump. | |
| And then went on a rant about how under no circumstances ever will I go to jail. | |
| And he said it was clear to him his interpretation that Michael's saying, I'll lie, cheat, steal, do whatever I have to do to keep myself out of jail. | |
| And then Michael Cohn's attorney's lawyer, his attorney, wrote the letter from February 8th of 2018 that was as exculpatory for Trump and the Trump organization and the Trump campaign as anything I've ever seen. | |
| Well, listen, Michael Cohen is a goofy sort of a guy. | |
| He looks like Fredo Corleone. | |
| As anybody can see your interview with Costello, he's a very serious, impressive guy, beautifully spoken guy, top lawyer. | |
| So the jury obviously believed him, not Cohen. | |
| That letter, that exculpatory letter, legally had to be produced and handed to the defense. | |
| And if there's ever a real investigation, I don't expect one. | |
| And they start going through all the communications emails of Alvin Bragg, and they find out he had that letter and didn't turn it over. | |
| He could be facing criminal charges. | |
| And I don't know why, well, I do know why, but Michael Cohen should be facing some perjury charges, but it would be too embarrassing for Bragg to bring those charges. | |
| So it'll probably never happen. | |
| Yeah, Carol, what's your take? | |
| This is not the only legal issue that Donald Trump is facing. | |
| You got Fulton County, Georgia, the phone call, Raphsonberger. | |
| You got a special counsel now looking into two issues, January 6th and the classified document issue at Mar-a-Lago. | |
| Do you see any of these cases going anywhere? | |
| I mean, it seems to me, and obviously, Sean, I'm not a lawyer. | |
| I don't even play one on TV or on the radio. | |
| But it seems to me that none of these are really going anywhere. | |
| But what they are is a really good distraction from the thing that I do know about, which is the financial situation of the country. | |
| So whether it's record inflation or a banking crisis or all of these things that are going on that are really affecting the lives of Americans, distracting people, getting the left to be distracted and to cheer on, | |
| oh, maybe Trump's going to go to jail, completely moves their attention from these very serious issues that could potentially change the financial world order and the U.S.'s lead as the global center of the world. | |
| It's a very easy and convenient thing for them to continue with this distraction campaign. | |
| Yeah, what do you think, Joe Concha? | |
| Do you think Donald Trump has any legal, serious legal issues in any of these cases? | |
| I think Alvin Bragg did the other cases no favors, right? | |
| That if Alvin Bragg fails here or doesn't bring an indictment, suddenly everybody's going to roll their eyes if then he's indicted for something else. | |
| It'll just look like they're picking and choosing something that'll stick, right? | |
| But to Carol's point, this is a huge distraction from what is a huge bombshell for Joe Biden that was revealed this week by James Comer, right? | |
| And you heard about three members of the Biden family receiving more than $1 million in payments. | |
| And it's not like this is like a typical Trump story. | |
| Oh, source is close to the president or he said, she said type of thing. | |
| There are actual bank receipts showing Hunter Biden getting more than a half a million dollars in one case. | |
| James Biden, the president's brother, getting more than $360,000. | |
| And then Hallie Biden, who's a high school guidance counselor in Delaware, she got tens of thousands of dollars from a Chinese energy company. | |
| And oh, there's 80,000 that went to an unknown Biden. | |
| I wonder who that could be. | |
| And no one is talking about this on all the networks I mentioned, CNN, MSNBC, CBS, ABC. | |
| They're only talking about Trump, and there's a reason for that because this is damaging to the president, and he knows it. | |
| And eventually, when more bank receipts come and the Trump story fades away, maybe finally we'll see some in media actually do their jobs and bottom of this. | |
| But we won't see it happen, of course, Sean, because that's how it's been over the last six years. | |
| All right, our Friday Roundup continues more with Joe Concha and Mark Simone and Carol Roth on the other side. | |
| Then your calls, 800-941-Sean, our number, if you want to be a part of the 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. | |
| 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. | |
| 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 Napok from Prologue Projects and Pushkin Industries. | |
| This is Fiasco, Benghazi. | |
| What difference at this point does it make? | |
| Yes, that's right. | |
| Lock her up. | |
| Listen to Fiasco, Benghazi, on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. | |
| 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 download 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 Napok from Prologue Projects and Pushkin Industries. | |
| This is Fiasco, Benghazi. | |
| What difference at this point does it make? | |
| Yes, that's right. | |
| Lock her 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 on Verdict with Ted Cruz Now, wherever you get your podcasts. | |
| All right, we can continue our Friday roundup. | |
| Mark Simone, Joe Contra, Carol Roth are with us. | |
| So everyone got all wigged out because Donald Trump said protest, protest, protest. | |
| We went back in time. | |
| A Hannity montage media Democrats downplaying the 2020 riots. | |
| Let me play it for you. | |
| This is a mostly protest. | |
| It is not it is not, generally speaking, unruly. | |
| But fires have been started. | |
| There needs to be unrest in the streets for as long as there's unrest in our lives. | |
| And unfortunately, there's way to go around. | |
| They're not going to stop. | |
| And everyone beware, because they're not going to stop. | |
| They're not going to stop before Election Day in November, and they're not going to stop after Election Day. | |
| Show me where it says that protests are supposed to be polite and peaceful. | |
| I don't know. | |
| We could have a summer of love. | |
| We have been covering these various peaceful protests. | |
| Destroying property, which can be replaced, is not violent. | |
| Our country was started because this is how the Boston Tea Party. | |
| Rioting. | |
| So do not get it twisted and think that, oh, this is something that has never happened before. | |
| And then this is so terrible. | |
| And where are we? | |
| And these savages and all of that. | |
| This is how this country was started. | |
| I can't. | |
| With folks that are saying we need to stop this unrest, we need to stop violence as though charging someone $1,000 a month for insulin that they need to survive isn't violent. | |
| That's Pelosi. | |
| That's Kamala Harris. | |
| That's AOC. | |
| That's Don Lemon. | |
| Carol Roth. | |
| Now all of a sudden, Donald Trump goes on Truth Social and puts out the word protest. | |
| And you think the world is falling apart. | |
| Yeah, you never want to play any sort of game with somebody on the left because they like to change the rules depending on their perception of whether they are winning or losing. | |
| That is their ultimate playbook. | |
| There is no consistency. | |
| It's rooted in hypocrisy. | |
| And whatever works for them at that particular time, that is the rule of the game. | |
| And then as soon as it doesn't work, then they have shifted it and changed it. | |
| We've seen this time and again. | |
| Yeah, your take. | |
| You're a media genius, Joe Contra. | |
| All I know is there is plenty of election deniers after the 2016 election, starting with Hillary Clinton. | |
| The person who lost her Stacey Abrams when she lost her elections. | |
| And they were put on magazine covers and hailed as speaking truth to power. | |
| And then, of course, after 2020, all of that changed. | |
| And as far as those riots are concerned, I mean, it looked like the ending scene in Die Hard at Nakatomi Plaza with Bernings just engulfed in flames behind guys like Ali Velshi saying, oh, well, you know, there are fires starting, but this is mostly peaceful. | |
| And it just the picture shows the lie in real time. | |
| And we'll never forget what happened during that summer of 2020. | |
| Media actually egging on riots with the likes of Don Lemon saying that this is how this country was founded, utterly and totally reckless. | |
| And it's great to see that CNN can't even draw 400,000 people to watch their network. | |
| Now, think about 400,000. | |
| That means an average of 8,000 people per state are watching that network. | |
| Sorry, I shouldn't have laughed. | |
| Mark Simone, I know you love the media. | |
| You're friends with all these media people. | |
| I hear you hang out with these media people. | |
| Is that true? | |
| Yeah, and half of them don't believe one word they say when they get on the other. | |
| The words death and destruction, why would anybody say it? | |
| I heard Jonathan Carl say that what protests could cause. | |
| I heard Jake Tapper say it this week. | |
| There's nothing Donald Trump's ever said that they haven't said, too. | |
| You know, if you ask Trump, why do you say these things about Alvin Bregg? | |
| Why would you talk? | |
| And he said, it's a great point. | |
| He goes, you've got to strip away their veneer of respectability. | |
| They don't deserve it. | |
| Everybody thinks this is some great respected prosecutor. | |
| This is the most dirty tricks, evil guy in the world, this Alvin Bregg. | |
| And it's a great line. | |
| Strip away their veneer of respectability. | |
| Unbelievable. | |
| Anyway, I hope you all have a great weekend. | |
| I think if I had to predict the person that's going to get in the most trouble this weekend, I'm going with Mark Simone. | |
| Linda, who are you going with? | |
| Oh, gosh. | |
| I think me and Carol could tear it up, actually. | |
| Oh, really? | |
| Tear it up more than Mark Simone? | |
| I mean, Carol's pretty fierce. | |
| I'm not going to lie. | |
| And I'm very partial to Mark. | |
| We've been in a few gallons together the last couple of weeks. | |
| Oh, my. | |
| Have you really been to a galas together? | |
| Yeah, that's when Mark walks past. | |
| How come I never get invited to a gala? | |
| That's what Mark, what? | |
| When he walks past me and pretends like he doesn't know me because I'm not sure. | |
| Oh, I heard about that moment. | |
| Mark, what was that, dude? | |
| Big fail there, buddy. | |
| No, you wouldn't recognize Linda all dressed up, looking like a folk magazine. | |
| All right, now you're digging a bigger hole. | |
| Just keep it. | |
| She's like, in real life, she looks so bad. | |
| You look this way in real life, but when you get dressed up, man, you look great. | |
| You look all right when you take a shower. | |
| It's impressive. | |
| Good for you. | |
| You want to back off that, Mark, or you want to stick with it? | |
| No, Linda's beautiful, but you see her at work. | |
| She's got a rake and overall. | |
| Oh, boy. | |
| Oh, boy. | |
| I'm not getting involved in this one. | |
| Get away from me. | |
| Oh, it's hysterical. | |
| All right. | |
| Thank you all. | |
| Carol, thank you. | |
| Mark, thank you. | |
| Joe Concert, thank you. | |
| When fake news gives you lies, Hannity supplies the truth. | |
| Sean Hannity is on right now. | |
| All right, 25 till the top of the hour. | |
| Happy Friday. | |
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| Interesting things that we really have not had enough time to talk about. | |
| President Chi, and of course, the meeting with Vladimir, his buddy, meeting proof of Biden's leadership, according to John Kirby. | |
| That's a joke. | |
| But other things going on. | |
| You have China now brokering the deal between Saudi Arabia and Iran. | |
| And then you have China brokering a deal between Saudi Arabia and Syria. | |
| And I keep talking about a new axis of evil that is emerging right before your very eyes, and nobody seems to be paying attention to it. | |
| And that is Russia and China, China being our number one geopolitical foe, Russia number two, along with Iran, which every report seems to indicate they are very close to having a nuclear arsenal. | |
| Then Saudi Arabia has now partnered with them, as has North Korea. | |
| So you've got this new axis of evil all filling a void left by Joe Biden, who's absolutely positively useless. | |
| And don't think it was an accident that the Chinese spy balloon flew over Alaskan airspace and down the west coast to Canada, into Idaho, all the way across to Montana, flying over our silo ICBM missile sites, down to Kansas and Missouri, over to Kentucky, out to the Carolinas. | |
| Then we'll shoot it down because we don't want to shoot it. | |
| We didn't want to shoot it down over land. | |
| Then they fire and shoot down three other unidentified objects over people, over land, and yet we don't know what they were. | |
| And they likely shot down a $100 balloon from a balloon club using a $400,000 Sidewinder missile. | |
| Nothing happens, no consequences. | |
| And I know a lot is being made over the fact that the United States responded to the killing of one American in Syria. | |
| Okay, that's great. | |
| Where's the response to China? | |
| What are the consequences for China? | |
| And then, of course, Vladimir Putin and his hostile regime taking down one of our $14 million drones. | |
| What are the consequences for Vladimir? | |
| Apparently, nothing. | |
| All tests for Joe Biden, all tests that he failed. | |
| Anyway, John Kirby, if you listen to him, he thinks the Putin-Chi meeting was proof of Biden's leadership. | |
| This is madness. | |
| And he thinks the Iran deal is not our agenda. | |
| Listen to this. | |
| But I think one thing you need to consider as you consider this visit to Moscow by President Xi is that it's also a manifestation of how much China and Russia know that American leadership on the world stage is back and how much they recognize that our network of alliances and partnerships is stronger than any network they might have. | |
| These are two countries with not a lot of friends and that those and that network is getting stronger and more influential around the world. | |
| Look at NATO, for instance, how much more relevant and viable NATO is and now it's going to grow by another two nations. | |
| All that's a manifestation of the leadership of this administration and the proof that American leadership on the world stage is in fact increasing. | |
| A great question, Jen. | |
| Right now, the Iran deal is really not on our agenda. | |
| We are much more focused on trying to hold the regime accountable for the way they're treating their people and for the way they're supporting Putin in Ukraine, sending drones to kill innocent Ukrainians. | |
| And of course, we're also focused, as I said earlier, on the larger state of destabilizing activities of Iran and the region, including their support for these militant groups. | |
| Then you've got the NORAD commander out there saying he doesn't know when Biden was first made aware of the Chinese spy balloon. | |
| How about before it went over Alaska airspace? | |
| That would have been the appropriate answer. | |
| You first learned about this on January 28th of this year. | |
| Is that correct? | |
| Senator, I learned about it on January 27th. | |
| We first detected it by radar, my sensors, on January 28th in the vicinity of St. Matthew's Island, Alaska. | |
| Okay, and that's United States territory, right? | |
| That's correct. | |
| So you notified your chain of command on that day, January 28th, right? | |
| I had a conversation on the evening of the 27th with the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff about my plan to intercept and identify and make an assessment, which we did on the 28th of January. | |
| And you sent that notification to Secretary of Defense Austin, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Joe Milley, via classified email, correct? | |
| I sent it to the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and to Secretary Austin's military assistant. | |
| I'm assuming that the military assistant passed it to the Secretary. | |
| Okay, and you still are not certain at what point President Biden or Secretary Austin were made aware of the balloon. | |
| Is that right? | |
| I do not know when the president was made aware. | |
| Anyway, joining us on the program, I wanted to invite her on because she's written a terrific book. | |
| It's called The Syndicate Spy, a Juliet Arroway novel. | |
| She spent nine years as a targeting officer within the CIA's, within the CIA and their counterterrorism center, both at Langley and on assignments in the Middle East and abroad. | |
| And she spearheaded operational efforts to achieve some of the most sensitive foreign intelligence objectives abroad. | |
| And she has first-hand knowledge of targeting methodologies used in the recruitment of spies and extensive field experience in working with foreign liaisons to discover and apprehend terrorists abroad. | |
| I'm not sure if you saw the number today, but 263 people on the terrorist watch list, we believe now are in the U.S. as of this year because of Joe Biden. | |
| How are you? | |
| Welcome to the program, Brittany Butler. | |
| I'm good. | |
| Thank you so much for having me. | |
| Listen, this is the real deal. | |
| If you really want to know what it's like to be a female spy, then you need to pick up the book, The Syndicate Spy. | |
| Like you said, Sean, I spent nine years at the CIA hunting terrorists all over the Middle East, Iraq, Afghanistan, you name it. | |
| And it's not like Hollywood portrays it. | |
| We have to be the smartest person in the room. | |
| I have three small sons, and I received the best training at the CIA. | |
| And they're never going to outsmart me. | |
| And I'm a firm believer that thrillers are the best when the writer knows what the heck they're talking about. | |
| And I'm characters and events, but it's based on what I experienced. | |
| Let's talk about some of the tougher things that you can talk about. | |
| I'm sure there's a lot you can't talk about. | |
| And maybe we can put it in novel form, but based on true stories that you went through as a CIA operative like this and undercover. | |
| Yeah, yeah. | |
| So my last assignment was in Pakistan-Afghanistan division at the counterterrorism center. | |
| And there we were, you know, we were charged with targeting the Taliban. | |
| We were charged with targeting al-Qaeda. | |
| And, you know, the withdrawal from Afghanistan had a tremendous impact on me as a former CIA targeting officer. | |
| And I think it had a huge impact on a lot of us that served in that conflict. | |
| And watching to see what happened with the Afghan people and Afghan women in particular was really heartbreaking for me. | |
| I feel like, you know, we had a duty to honor a lot of our alliances when we withdrew from that country. | |
| And, you know, we're going to find ourselves in the same position we were in before 9-11. | |
| Again, this is my own opinion, having worked in this industry and having had experience in Afghanistan and Pakistan. | |
| But it was really important to me that I showcase a really strong, powerful Arab woman in my book, The Syndicate Spy, and a female intelligence officer, how we really are. | |
| We're not these sexual dominatrixes that Hollywood portrays us as, and our only meaning, our only use to intelligence operations is to wear fishnet stockings and a low-cut blouse. | |
| We actually use, you know, the same tactics and methodologies as our male counterparts to find and apprehend the terrorists. | |
| And I really wanted to showcase both a powerful Arab woman and a female intelligence officer. | |
| Because to be honest, I think we had a harder time in the Middle East recruiting sources, debriefing detainees, because these Arab men, you know, a lot of them wouldn't even look me in the eye. | |
| And so I had to establish my authority right away when I walked in that room. | |
| And it was hard stuff. | |
| Well, I appreciate your work for your country. | |
| I mean, it's admirable. | |
| You can get the book, by the way, The Syndicate Spy, on Amazon.com, Hannity.com, and bookstores everywhere. | |
| Brittany Butler, we appreciate you being with us. | |
| And thanks for all you've done. | |
| And I hope people read this book. | |
| They're going to learn a lot about what the real spy world is all about. | |
| Absolutely. | |
| Thanks so much for having me on. | |
| It's been an honor. | |
| 800-941-Sean, if you want to be a part of the program, John, North Carolina, Sean Hannity Show. | |
| What's up? | |
| Hey, Sean. | |
| I'm just a little concerned that we're losing track of the big picture, especially when it comes to the general consumer. | |
| The existing home sales data was touted as being really, really good the other day when it was really, really bad. | |
| If you take a look at the numbers, they're like, oh, it's up 14% over January. | |
| Well, January was one of the worst worries on record. | |
| Well, prices are down now dramatically across the board around the country. | |
| And new construction has come to a screeching halt. | |
| Sale of pre-existing homes are negligible in most states. | |
| There are some states that are exceptions, like Texas, Florida, Tennessee. | |
| I know you're in North Carolina. | |
| Believe it or not, you're doing better than a lot of other states. | |
| It's a very tough market right now. | |
| The South are doing well with, not better than inflation right now, but they're doing well with the average sales price. | |
| Existing. | |
| But prices are at an 11-year low. | |
| Well, they're up 5% in the Midwest, and they're up 2.7 in the South, but they're down 4.5% in the Northeast and 5.6 in the West. | |
| So it's a tale of different sides of the market. | |
| I read the Suicom sales down 11% or home values down 11% and sales down dramatically. | |
| Sales were down 24% compared to last year, February. | |
| And the thing that's really scary is that we have fewer than a million homes on the market across the country. | |
| Normally, that number is north of 2 to 2.2 million at this time of the year, but we've been in an inventory recession since 2015. | |
| But John, let me ask you a question. | |
| If you have a 3% 30-year fixed-rate mortgage, why would you give that up and start paying a 7%, 7.5% 30-year fixed-rate mortgage? | |
| Because it adds thousands of dollars to your monthly payment. | |
| Why would you ever give it up? | |
| Well, because people are moving from New York to Florida. | |
| Only if they have to. | |
| Yeah, but I can tell you Florida's real estate market, it's taking a slight hit compared. | |
| It's not as hot as it was, but they have nearly 1,000 people moving into the state of Florida every day. | |
| The most reasons that people move, the reasons why most people move, I should say, is marriage or divorce, death of a loved one, or a job transfer. | |
| And I'll tell you why other people are moving. | |
| Choice. | |
| To get away from high taxes, burdensome regulation, you know, draconian lockdowns. | |
| They want warmer weather, and they want a better way of life. | |
| And that's why states like Florida, Texas, the Carolinas, Tennessee are doing so much better than the rest of the country. | |
| I think it's just important that people dig into these reports and not just buy the headlines because we are in an area where we're going to see probably a million fewer homes sold this year than last year. | |
| And that has a ripple effect. | |
| Right. | |
| It has a ripple effect with retail sales, furniture sales, everything, electronics. | |
| And those are some of the things that are going to get hit hard and hit fast. | |
| And the same thing is true. | |
| Last year, we had a 13-month supply of new homes. | |
| Well, that's never good because that means that those things are going to sit. | |
| They're going to sell for less. | |
| And it's just when the recession started in 2008, 2009, it was actually a housing recession that started in 2006. | |
| Right. | |
| Peak units in 2005, peak sales price in 2006. | |
| Well, I appreciate your call. | |
| Look, a lot of people are struggling. | |
| And you know what the sad part is? | |
| For most people, their home is their biggest investment. | |
| That is their retirement plan, the biggest part of their retirement plan. | |
| Anyway, appreciate the call, my friend. | |
| When the world gives you insanity, he gives you common sense solutions. | |
| This country needs a course correction immediately. | |
| Find your station at Annity.com and listen three hours a day. | |
| All right, these are very tough economic times. | |
| You got to look for every way you can save money. | |
| One way, a huge way, is with your cell phone bill. | |
| And all you have to do is make the switch to Pure Talk. | |
| And here's the beauty of it all. | |
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| How great is that? | |
| Anyway, you never have a contract to sign. | |
| You have a 100% money-back guarantee. | |
| Now, a lot of these big companies, they'll say, we'll give you a free phone. | |
| Well, that is a trick to lock you into a long-term contract that's going to cost you a fortune every month. | |
| You'll more than pay for that phone like 10 times over. | |
| Now, if you want a brand new iPhone 12 from Pure Talk, you can get one. | |
| Just add $12 a month at 0% interest. | |
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| Now, you get incredibly blazing fast 5G service. | |
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| It's only 30 bucks a month, 100% money-back guarantee, no contract to sign. | |
| To make the switch, it's very, very simple and easy. | |
| Just dial pound 250, say the keyword save now, pound 250, keyword save now, and you start saving money immediately. | |
| PureTalk is just simply smarter, wireless. | |
| Anyway, look, we're wrapping things up for today. | |
| I want to remind everybody, programming big note. | |
| There's not really much to talk about, right, Linda? | |
| I had my interview with President Trump on Monday at Mar-a-Lago. | |
| What do you think? | |
| A lot to talk about, little to talk about? | |
| What do you think? | |
| I mean, you know, Mr. Trump is not a man of few words, and neither are you. | |
| I think you need about four shows to get it all in. | |
| We could probably knock out the whole week and I could just do radio for the week. | |
| Absolutely. | |
| And just talk about it. | |
| Anyway, for the full hour, we will have former President Trump, a lot to talk about, obviously, with the president. | |
| We'll get to all of it and so much more. | |
| But that'll happen Monday night, 9 p.m. | |
| As always, set your DVR, Fox News. | |
| Anyway, that's going to wrap things up for us this week. | |
| Thank you for joining us. | |
| Thank you for making the show possible. | |
| And we'll see you on Monday with President Trump for the full hour. | |
| Have a great weekend. | |
| 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. | |
| You want smart political talk without the meltdowns? | |
| We got you. | |
| I'm Carol Markowitz. | |
| And I'm Mary Catherine Hamm. | |
| We've been around the block in media and we're doing things differently. | |
| Normally is about real conversations. | |
| Thoughtful, try to be funny, grounded, and no panic. | |
| We'll keep you informed and entertained without ruining your day. | |
| Join us every Tuesday and Thursday, normally, on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. | |
| 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 download Verdict with Ted Cruz Now, wherever you get your podcasts. |
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