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? | |
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| Now I'm Carol Markovich. | |
| And I'm Mary Catherine Hamm. | |
| We've been around the block in media and we're doing things differently. | |
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| I'm Ben Ferguson, and I'm Ted Cruz. | |
| Three times a week, we do our podcast, Verdic 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. | |
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| Coming up next, our final news roundup and information overload hour. | |
| All right, news round up 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. | |
| Uh the week of the indictment that never happened and likely won't happen now, or if it does happen, probably won't go anywhere. | |
| Uh 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 week in review, we have Carol Roth, uh, former recovery investment banker. | |
| Uh the great Mark Simone, the host of the morning show on our flagship in New York, W O R AM 710, Joe Concha, Fox News contributor, author of Come On Man, uh, a bestseller. | |
| Uh, welcome all of you to the program. | |
| Thanks for being with us. | |
| Hey, Sean. | |
| Hey, Sean. | |
| Hey. | |
| All right. | |
| Mark Simone, I'm gonna 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 gonna stay in New York. | |
| You stand by that, right? | |
| I spend hundreds of thousands a year just on coach checks. | |
| Coach checks. | |
| I believe that too. | |
| All right, so last weekend, if you would have asked me, Hannity, what are the odds that uh Alvin Bragg is gonna indict Donald Trump? | |
| Uh, I was in the high nineties at that point. | |
| Then as the week began to unfold, I dropped down. | |
| I think my first drop was to 72 and dropping fast. | |
| Uh, then by maybe Wednesday or Thursday, uh well, I think Wednesday was 5050. | |
| You know, now I'm down to the 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. | |
| Uh, what did you think of what was unfolding all week? | |
| Because to me it was fascinating. | |
| Well, uh you this guy is uh 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. | |
| Used actually going to a courtroom with a case. | |
| So no, he actually has a track record. | |
| He's uh he is he fails 49% of the time when he tries a felony case. | |
| Forty-nine percent. | |
| That's pretty bad. | |
| That's really bad. | |
| And listen, uh, Michael Cohen, nice guy in real life, definitely Freedom Corleone. | |
| Anybody would put him on the witness, and it's gotta be crazy. | |
| And uh nobody could figure out this charge. | |
| Uh Alan Dershwitz 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 shut. | |
| Um Bragg is he's 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 stolenist show trial. | |
| This is not what you're supposed to. | |
| Okay, you say if they you're a good Democrat. | |
| Fair enough. | |
| That's a great statement. | |
| Um now my my only point is where are where's one Democrat that has spoken out saying this is stupid, except for Van Jones. | |
| And Derschwitz, 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, uh, mark my words. | |
| Uh I don't think when Joe Biden leaves office uh that his family should expect much different treatment. | |
| Um anyway, Carol, what's your take? | |
| Yeah, I mean, uh I feel like um this is uh something that wasn't really on my March Madness bracket, but uh probably should have been. | |
| I kind of feel like they're trying to make uh 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. | |
| Um, you know, they're they're kind of using this as a way to kind of p pit the two between each other. | |
| So I wonder if there's you know some other nefarious purpose in creating more division in the Republican Party, uh, given the fact that they they don't really seem like they believe they can win the case. | |
| What do you think, Joe Concher? | |
| 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 uh uh Well, wait a minute, you do know Joe Concha that Michael Avanati 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, text, emails relating to the hush money scandal that have yet to see the light of the 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 at the CNN. | |
| 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, and 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 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. | |
| Uh and then went on a rant about how under no circumstances ever will I go to jail. | |
| And he said I it was clear to him, his interpretation that Michael's saying, I'll lie, cheat, steal, do whatever I have to do, uh, to get it keep myself out of jail. | |
| And then Michael Cohn's attorney's lawyer, uh, his attorney wrote the letter from February eighth of twenty eighteen that was his exculpatory for Trump and the Trump organization and the Trump campaign as anything I've ever seen. | |
| Well, listen, Michael Cohen, he's a goofy sort of a guy. | |
| He looks like Fredo Corleone. | |
| As anybody could see your interview with Costello, he's a very serious, uh, impressive guy, beautifully spoken guy, top lawyer, so the jury obviously believed him, not Cohen. | |
| Uh uh that letter, that exculpatory letter, legally had to be produced in the hands of 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 Breck, 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? | |
| It's it this is not the only legal issue that Donald Trump is facing. | |
| You got Fulton County, Georgia, the phone call, Raphsember. | |
| Uh, you got a special counsel now looking into two issues, January sixth, 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 and obviously, Sean, I I'm not a lawyer. | |
| Uh, 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, um, or all of these things that are going on that are really affecting the lives of Americans, distracting people, you know, getting the left to be distracted and to cheer on, | |
| oh, maybe Trump's gonna go to jail, completely moves their attention from these very serious issues that could, you know, potentially change the financial world order and and the U.S.'s lead as the you know is 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 uh 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 gonna 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 uh to Carroll's point, this is a huge distraction from what is a huge bombshell for Joe Biden that that was revealed this week by James Comer, right? | |
| And and uh I you heard about three members of the Biden family receiving more than one million dollars in payments, and it's not like this is like a typical Trump story. | |
| Oh, sources 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 eighty thousand 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 and 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 Hammond. | |
| 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 people. | |
| Catch new episodes of Normally every Tuesday and Thursday on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, 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 theories. | |
| 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 Mayfock from Prologue Projects and Pushkin Industries. | |
| This is Fiasco Benghazi. | |
| What difference at this point does it make? | |
| Yes, that's right. | |
| Locker 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 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 Mayfock 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. | |
| Alright, we continue our Friday roundup. | |
| Mark Simone, Joe Concha, Carol Roth are with us. | |
| So everyone got all wigged out because Donald Trump said protest, protest, protest. | |
| A Hannity Montage. | |
| Media Democrats downplaying the 2020 riots. | |
| People will do what they do. | |
| This is a motion of protest. | |
| 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 plenty to go around. | |
| They're not gonna stop. | |
| And and everyone beware, because they're not gonna stop. | |
| It is gonna they're not gonna stop before election day in November, and they're not gonna 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 don't do not get it twisted and think that, oh, this is some something that has not 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 person someone a thousand dollars 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, uh, Carol Roth. | |
| Uh now all of a sudden, uh Donald Trump, you know, goes on truth social and puts out the word protest and it 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 a hypocrisy and whatever works for them at that particular time, that is the rule of the game. | |
| And then as soon as it 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 Concha. | |
| 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, uh, and they were put on magazine covers and hailed as speaking truth to power. | |
| And then of course after 2020, uh 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 burnings just uh engulfed in flames behind guys like Ali Belshe saying, oh well, you know, there are fire starting, but this is mostly peaceful. | |
| And it just the picture shows the lie in real time and it will 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 laugh. | |
| Mark Mark Simone, I know you love the media. | |
| You're friends with all these media people. | |
| I I hear you hang out with these media people. | |
| Is that true? | |
| Yeah and they half of them don't believe one word they say when they get on the other job you know uh you the the words death of destruction why would uh anybody say it I heard Jonathan Carl say that's what protest could cause I heard Jake Tapper say it this week there's nothing Donald Trump's ever said that they haven't said to you know and if you ask Trump why do you say these things about Alvin Bray? | |
| Why would you talk and he said it's a great point he goes you got to strip away their veneer of respectability. | |
| They don't deserve it. | |
| You know everybody thinks this is some great respected prosecutor. | |
| This is the most dirty tricks evil guy in the world is Alvin Bragg. | |
| 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 it's all I 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 gonna lie and I'm very partial to Mark we've been in a few gallas together the last couple weeks. | |
| Oh my god have you really been to a gallas together? | |
| Yeah that's why Mark walks past that's what Mark what? | |
| When he walks past me and pretends like he doesn't know me because I like to I heard about that moment in real life. | |
| Mark what was that dude you big to big fail there, buddy. | |
| No you you wouldn't recognize Linda all dressed up looking like a Volk magazine now you're digging a bigger hole. | |
| Just keep it like in real life she looks so bad. | |
| Yeah 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 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 like got a rake and overall I'm not getting involved in this one. | |
| Get away from me 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. | |
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| Uh interesting things that we really have not had enough time to talk about. | |
| Uh President Chi and of course the the meeting with Vladimir, his buddy, uh meeting proof of Biden's leadership, according to John Kirby. | |
| That's uh a joke. | |
| But other things going on. | |
| You have 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, uh, along with Iran, which every report seems to indicate they are very close to having a nuclear arsenal. | |
| Uh then add Saudi Arabia has now partnered with them, as has North Korea. | |
| So you've got this new access of evil all filling a void uh left by Joe Biden, who's absolutely positively useless. | |
| And don't think it was an accident that the Chinese spy balloon, you know, 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, uh, down to Kansas at 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, uh, and yet we don't know what they were. | |
| And they likely shot down a hundred dollar balloon from a balloon club using a four hundred thousand dollar sidewinder missile. | |
| Nothing happens, no consequences. | |
| And I know a lot is being made over the fact that the United States responded uh to the killing of one American in Syria. | |
| Okay, that's great. | |
| Where's the response to China? | |
| What is what are the consequences for China? | |
| And then, of course, Vladimir Putin and his, you know, hostile regime taking down one of our, you know, what, $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 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 uh is that it's also uh 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. | |
| Um, and that those and that network is getting stronger and more influential around the world. | |
| Look at NATO, for instance. | |
| How how much more uh relevant and viable NATO is, and now it's gonna grow by another two nations. | |
| Uh, all that's a manifestation of the leadership of this administration uh and the and the proof that American leadership on the world stage is in fact increasing. | |
| A great question, Jen. | |
| Uh right now the Iran deal is really not uh on our agenda. | |
| We are much more focused on trying to hold the regime accountable for the way they're treating their people uh and for the way they're supporting uh uh Putin in Ukraine, sending drones to kill uh innocent uh Ukrainians. | |
| Uh and of course, uh we're also focused, as I said earlier, uh on the larger state of destabilizing activities of Iran in the region, including their support uh for these militant groups. | |
| Then you've got the the NORAD commander uh 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 I learned about it on January 27th. | |
| We first detected it by radar, my censors on January 28th in the vicinity of St. Matthew's Island, Alaska. | |
| Okay. | |
| And that's the United States territory, right? | |
| That's correct. | |
| So you notified your chain of command on that day, January 28, right? | |
| I uh had a conversation on the evening of the 27th with the 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 uh the chairman of the joint chiefs of staff and to Secretary Austin's military assistant. | |
| Uh I'm I'm assuming that the military assistant passed it to the secretary. | |
| Okay. | |
| And you um still are not certain at what point President Biden or Secretary Austin were made aware of the balloon. | |
| Is that right? | |
| I I do not know when the president was made aware. | |
| Uh anyway, uh joining us on the program, I wanted to invite her on because she's written a terrific uh book. | |
| Uh it's the it's called The Syndicate Spy, uh, a Juliet Arrowway novel. | |
| She spent nine years as a targeting officer within the CIA's uh within the CIA and their counterterrorism center, uh, 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 firsthand knowledge of targeting methodologies used in the recruitment of spies and extensive field experience and working with foreign liaisons to discover and apprehend terrorists uh abroad. | |
| I'm not sure if you saw the number today, but uh 263 people on the terrorist watch list, we believe now are in the U.S. uh 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. | |
| Um listen, this is the real deal. | |
| If you really want to know what it's like to be a female spy, uh then you need to pick up the book, The Syndicate Spy. | |
| Uh like like you said, Sean, I spent nine years after CIA hunting terrorists all over the Middle East, Iraq, Afghanistan, um, you know, you name it. | |
| And it's not like Hollywood portrays it. | |
| We have to be the smartest person in the room. | |
| I have uh three small sons, and I I received the best training at the CIA. | |
| And they'll never they're never gonna outsmart me. | |
| Um and I'm a firm believer that thrillers are the best when the writer knows what the heck they're talking about. | |
| And I have characters and events, but it's based on what I experienced. | |
| Let's talk about some of the the tougher things that you can talk about. | |
| I'm sure there's a lot you can't talk about. | |
| Uh and maybe we can put it in in novel form, but based on true stories, uh, that you went through as a CIA operative like this and undercover. | |
| Yeah, yeah. | |
| So um I 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 um, 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 um with the Afghan people and um Afghan women in particular, what's really heartbreaking for me. | |
| I feel like um, you know, we had a duty to honor a lot of our alliances when we withdrew from that country. | |
| And um, you know, or we're gonna find ourselves in the same position we were in before 9-11. | |
| Um again, this is my own opinion, having worked in this industry and having had experience in Afghanistan, 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 the sexual dominatrixes that Hollywood portrays us as, and our only meaning um our only use to intelligence operation is to wear fish net 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 uh a female intelligence officer. | |
| Because to be honest, I think we had a harder time in the Middle East. | |
| Recruiting sources, um, you know, 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 it was hard stuff. | |
| Well, I appreciate uh your work for your country. | |
| I mean, it's admirable. | |
| Uh you can get the book, by the way, the Syndicate Spy, uh on Amazon.com, Hannity.com, and bookstores everywhere. | |
| Uh Brittany Butler, we appreciate you being with us and and thanks for all you've done. | |
| And I hope people read this book, they're gonna learn a lot about what uh the real spy world is all about. | |
| Absolutely. | |
| Thanks so much for having me on. | |
| It's been an honor. | |
| 800 nine four one Sean, if you want to be a part of the program, uh 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 border around the country, and new construction has come to a screeching halt. | |
| Sale of pre-existing homes are are negligible in most states. | |
| There are some states that are exceptions, like Texas, Florida, Tennessee. | |
| Uh I know you're in North Carolina. | |
| You're doing, believe it or not, you're doing better than a lot of other states. | |
| Um 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 prices are at an 11-year low. | |
| Well, they're up five percent in the Midwest, and they're up two point seven in the south, but they're down four point five percent in the northeast and five point six in the west. | |
| So it's a tale of different sides of the market. | |
| Uh I read the sweet home sales down eleven per or home values down eleven percent and then sales down dramatically. | |
| Sales were down twenty-four percent compared to last year, February. | |
| Yeah. | |
| And the 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 two to two point two million at this time of the year. | |
| But we've been in a uh inventory recession since twenty six. | |
| But John, let me ask you a question. | |
| If you have a three percent 30-year fixed rate mortgage, uh why would you give that up and start paying us a seven, seven and a half percent thirty-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 only if they have to. | |
| Yeah, but flo I can tell you Florida's real estate market, it's taken a slight hit compared. | |
| It's not as hot as it was, but they have nearly a thousand people moving into the state of Florida every day. | |
| The most reasons that people move, the 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. | |
| To get away from high taxes, burdensome regulation, you know, draconian lockdowns, uh they want warmer weather, and uh they want a better way of life, and that's why states like Florida, Texas, the Carolinas, Tennessee, uh 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 gonna see probably a million fewer homes sold this year than last year. | |
| And that has a ripple effect. | |
| As a ripple effect with retail sales, furniture sales, uh everything, electronics, and those are some of the things that are gonna get hit hard and hit fast. | |
| And the same thing is true. | |
| Uh last year we had a 13-month supply of new homes. | |
| Well, that's never good because that means that those things are gonna sit, they're gonna sell for less. | |
| And it's just when the recession started in 2008, 2009. | |
| It was actually a housing recession that started in 2006. | |
| All right. | |
| Peak peak units in 2005, peak sales price in 2006. | |
| Well, I appreciate your call. | |
| Look, a lot of people are struggling. | |
| And for 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 Hannity.com and listen three hours a day. | |
| All right, these are very tough economic times. | |
| You gotta 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. | |
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| Now, a lot of these big companies will say, Well, 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 ten times over. | |
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| Pure Talk is just simply smarter, wireless. | |
| Um 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'll probably knock out the whole week, and I can just do radio for the week. | |
| Absolutely. | |
| And just uh talk about it. | |
| Anyway, for the full hour, we will have uh former President Trump, a lot to talk about, obviously, uh with the President. | |
| We'll get to all of it and so much more. | |
| Uh, but that'll happen Monday night, 9 p.m. | |
| As always, set your DVR, Fox News. | |
| Anyway, that's gonna 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. | |
| What I told people I was making a podcast about Benghazi. | |
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| Benghazi, the truth became a web of lies. | |
| From Prologue Projects and Pushkin Industries, this is Fiasco Benghazi. | |
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| Listen to Fiasco Benghazi on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. | |
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