All Episodes
March 27, 2023 - Sean Hannity Show
40:35
Alving Bragg's Under Attack - March 27th, Hour 3
| Copy link to current segment

Time Text
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.
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 a Verdict with Ted Cruz Now, wherever you get your podcasts.
Stay right here for our final news roundup and information overload.
All right, news roundup, information overload.
Our glad you're with us, 800-941-Sean.
Our number, if you want to be a part of the program, my interview with President Donald J. Trump from Mar-a-Lago tonight, 9 Eastern, the full hour on the Fox News channel.
Hope you'll join us.
We talk about a lot tonight.
There's a lot to talk about.
Anyway, one of the big issues is about the Alvin Bragg case collapsing last week.
And then I did ask the president with all the good news that he had gotten, why did he go out, tweet out that image that became an instant controversy and talk about death and destruction.
You'll hear his answer to that tonight.
Here's James Comer, the House Government Reform and Oversight Committee, talking about Bragg's investigation being federal and Bragg doesn't have the luxury not to testify in front of Congress.
And also that this investigation of Bragg about Donald Trump is about politics.
And by the way, even Andrew Cuomo said so.
Listen.
What the DA is trying to say is what you just quoted.
He said, stay out of local investigations.
The problem with that is this is not a local investigation.
This is a federal investigation.
He's investigating a presidential candidate, not to mention former president of the United States, for a federal election crime.
That has no business being litigated in a local district attorney's office.
And when he says he's not going to cooperate with Congress, unfortunately for Mr. Bragg, he doesn't have the luxury of determining whether or not he can comply with congressional requests because he crossed over two levels of government from the local level to the federal level to try to prosecute something that clearly, if there was a reason for prosecution, it should be done by the Department of Justice on the federal level.
He's investigating, as I understand it, potential violations of state crimes.
Even at that, look, let's just be honest here.
I mean, this is about politics.
This is a presidential candidate.
And one of the reasons we believe we have high crime rates in certain parts of America is because we have prosecutors that are soft on crime.
And we believe that our tax dollars, and that's where I come in with the House Oversight Committee, we believe tax dollars would be better spent prosecuting local criminals.
That's what a DA is supposed to do.
All right, joining us now is President Trump's attorney in the New York case, and that's Joe Takapina.
Joe, welcome back to the program, sir.
How are you?
Good, Sean.
Thanks for having me.
All right.
So we have a grand jury that meets three days a week in Manhattan.
Monday, what is it?
Thursday, and is it Monday, Tuesday, and Thursday?
I think it's Monday, Wednesday, Thursday, but, you know, it seems to be a moving target.
And I don't know if that is a set in stone schedule, but that's been Monday, Wednesday, Thursday.
So what we knew by the end of last week is that there was a lot of chaos, and it was reported pretty much everywhere.
Foxnews.com had it.
There's a lot of chaos inside of Bragg's office.
We had three big developments last week.
One certainly was this letter from Michael Cohn's attorney from February of 2018, which was extraordinarily exculpatory.
I read it every day last week, so no point in reading it again today.
Then we had Bob Costello, who testified a week ago today before the grand jury, contradicting pretty much everything that Michael Cohn said, but especially pointing out that Michael Cohn said over and over again he had no dirt on Donald Trump and then talking over and over again about how he's never going to go to jail and he'll do whatever he has to do, say whatever he has to say to prevent himself from going to jail.
So that takes their star witness kind of out of the equation.
And then a third thing that came out is we went back in time and then there it was.
We found numerous instances.
TMZ, Washington Post covered it, signed Stormy Daniels signing her name, saying they never had an affair.
So I would say that's a pretty good week for Donald Trump.
Yes, it is.
Yet we're still actually sitting here waiting to see if Alan Bragg is going to seek to indict the 45th president of the United States on unsustainable charges, Sean.
They are unsustainable charges.
The crime that he's seeking to charge doesn't come close to any of the facts we know.
And that's what is still scary to me.
I mean, this thing should have been put to bed a long time ago.
You know, this was called a zombie case by that office.
It was a case that they actually put into the grand jury two years ago under the previous DA Vance and then withdrew from the grand jury because they were thinking that there was a tax deduction taken here when there was no tax reduction.
I just, I'm really at a loss to see how they go forward.
And if they do go forward, it is to me, again, I'll say it, the greatest abuse of prosecutorial discretion I've seen in my 32 years.
And I said on both sides of the defense, I was a prosecutor and as a defense lawyer.
It's something that I just don't see how they do it.
And that's what's concerning to me.
And now, you know, you have the House Judiciary Committee coming down on them.
Yeah, they're stumbling their noses at them, but that's not going to last too long.
And that's not going to end up too well for him.
You know, it's a case that really harkens back to the regimes, the terrorist regimes of history when you talk about Nazi Germany, Soviet Union, Russia, Chinese, Communist China, where people are targets of government and they figure out later what the crime they'll charge them with is, but they go after the target.
And that's what you have here.
And that's something that we should be all be shivering in our boots about because this is a precedent that doesn't just go for Donald Trump.
Once we cross this Rubicon, we're there.
And this will be the new weaponization of the justice system in this country to seek out political opponents.
Scares the hell out of me, Sean.
Scares the hell out of me.
And this is not the only legal case the president is dealing with.
You got the case down in Georgia.
You got the case, I guess you have a special prosecutor now appointed looking into classified documents and going back even to January 6th issues.
At what point does it end?
But this has been, this defines Donald Trump's career in politics, never-ending, non-stop attacks, investigations, you know, like the Mueller investigation, the Russia hoax, the Ukraine impeachment.
You know, it just never seems to end.
The issue here is that, and I take based on your statement, you have not heard from the DA's office at all, have you?
Not at all.
No, not at all.
I mean, we even said that second letter, as you know, that when you discuss the McDermott law firm letter, which is an insanely powerful letter, it means Michael Cohen is going to have to either say I lied to another federal authority, the FEC, or, you know, which is a five-year crime, or, you know, I was telling the truth then and I'm lying now.
I mean, it's, you know, it further complicates things.
It also corroborates Bob Costello and his testimony.
It is an unmitigated nightmare for this office.
And that's why any prosecutor worked to assault would never bring a case on the word of Michael Cohen.
And that's why, Sean, for years, you need more than just the word of a convicted liar, a convicted perjurer, someone who's committed a multitude of felonies inside the Trump world, outside of the Trump world with this taxing dye and frauds and all that.
I mean, this guy is a walking contradiction, never tells the same story twice.
And so, you know, you have to really be concerned about what are we doing here.
And that's, you know.
Well, Alan Dershowitz took it this far.
He said.
Go ahead.
Let me play it for you because he said Alvin Bragg could be disbarred if he uses Michael Cohn's testimony to secure a Trump indictment.
Listen.
Well, I don't think an indictment can actually come forward now after the comments made by Costello.
He has proved that the main witness is going to be a perjuring liar on the witness stand.
And that puts the district attorney in a terrible position.
If he uses Cohn as a witness, he could actually lose his bar license.
It's unethical to put a witness on the stand who you know is lying.
And he has to know that Cohen will be lying.
Or he tries the case without Cohen, which is very difficult.
Or he does the right thing.
He drops the case.
Even Dan Abrams said it was Bragg jerry-riggering a seven-year-old misdemeanor into a felony to charge Trump.
And we've gone into that in great specificity and detail.
And yet here we are, week two, you know, of possible indictment watch.
How about the New York Times today?
You know, there's nothing Donald Trump does that they think is okay.
They came out with a very strong piece of why it would be a massive mistake to charge the president.
They came out with a very strong piece.
I mean, Andrew Cuomo, okay, someone who's not a friend of Donald Trump's, came out very aggressively against the charges here.
So it's not the usual suspect.
It's not.
Well, he rightly called it what it is.
It was political.
This is all political.
Of course it is.
Of course.
Because look at that.
Can I just say this to your listener, just for the, just because we keep getting, you know, I keep repeating it, but it seems to get lost in the message.
There are, the law is very simple.
You know, they say it's murky.
It's murky in some regards, the election campaign finance laws, but it's very simple when it comes to this.
If the person is spending personal funds, not campaign funds, and if that person had a reason to make that payment, irrespective of the campaign, obviously here to prevent personal embarrassment to himself and his family, it is outside campaign finance.
So there's no campaign finance violation.
So then there's no false business records because there was no filing obligation of those records.
So President Trump had many non-electoral reasons for trying to keep these allegations quiet, notably family harmony and protecting family members, especially his young son, right?
And preserving the by the way, what if he didn't win the election to preserve his future viability and television personality also in case he lost, right?
And it's you, can you imagine, Sean, the amount of people that would be baying for Donald Trump's scalp if the elite campaign contributions would be leading the charge?
If instead of using his personal funds, he used campaign funds to make this payment.
They would be going crazy.
It's a personal expense.
Use campaign funds.
That's a felony.
I mean, so damned if you do, damned if you don't, right?
I mean, he didn't use campaign funds.
He didn't take a tax deduction.
All the things you would have done if this were a campaign expenditure.
It was not.
So what are we talking about here?
And Michael Cohn's own attorney puts that in writing in 2018.
Now, if he's the star witness, then I guess the second star witness would be Stormy Daniels.
Stormy Daniels has.
What's that?
I'm not so sure about that, Sean.
She wasn't even called in the grand jury.
She is probably the most irrelevant witness in this entire case, Stormy Daniels.
She was paid money.
There's no question about it.
She was paid money, but she also signed a document that she wasn't paid money because she never had sex with Donald Trump.
That's what she said.
But think about it.
That's why she signed her name to that.
Yeah, no question.
But the president vehemently denies that he had that affair with her.
But putting that aside, it is completely irrelevant to the charge that would be brought, whether he did or he didn't, and that he paid her money.
That's what's irrelevant.
It's irrelevant if he did or did not have a relationship with her.
Completely irrelevant.
So she could deny it.
She could admit it.
It doesn't matter.
What's relevant is, was the payment made to her a campaign finance violation?
The answer is 100% no.
And by the way, you had on your TV show the other night, Brad Smith, former chairman of the FEC, who reviewed this issue.
And he said, it's absolutely not.
You know, you could expend, like, look, I want to look good on the campaign, so I'm going to go buy an expensive suit instead of wearing a cheap raggedy suit from put together from China that I bought for $99.
I'll go get an Armani suit or something because it will help my image on the campaign.
Well, that's benefiting the campaign, but that's also benefiting yourself.
And that is not or ever will be considered a campaign finance expenditure.
You can't write that off or have campaign funds pay for your suit, even though it would benefit the campaign.
All right, quick break.
We'll come right back more with President Trump's attorney, Joe Takapina.
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 Nafok 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.
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 Nayfak 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 down with Verdict with Ted Cruz now, wherever you get your podcasts.
We continue with President Trump's attorney, Joe Takapina, is with us.
Let me ask you this.
I watched you on Meet the Press yesterday, and it was a topic.
You know, it's a topic I'm asking the president about tonight.
And that is, you know, he had a great week last week.
And then he opened himself up for criticism with the post of him with the baseball bat and the picture of Alvin Bragg next to it and the comments about death and destruction.
Yeah.
You're his attorney.
What were your thoughts?
Now, he did put, but in fairness, he pulled it down.
I understand it very quickly.
Yeah, I spoke to him about it because what ultimately had happened here.
And look, someone messed up from his social media team.
I mean, we don't need self-inflicted wounds here, right?
The last thing we need to do is make Alan Bragg the victim here when he's the guy who's perpetrating this fraud of a case.
But, you know, what had happened was there was an article that was written, a very negative article about Alvin Bragg and his track record on prosecuting violent crime or something like that.
There was a headline.
That's all he was shown.
The headline, it was like, you know, it was a link.
So it just had the headline in it.
He said, okay, yeah, you can post this to whoever.
But when someone opens the article, what they did in that article, it wasn't President Trump who did it.
They just supposed two photos, one with Trump with a badge, one with Alvin Bragg's head next to each other.
So, of course, when that article was reposted, that picture showed up unbeknownst to him.
But somebody had to pick that up.
And so I did say that was ill-advised.
It was ill-advised because we don't need any self-inflicted wounds.
The president's a great communicator.
I mean, he got himself into office when nobody thought that would ever happen.
Okay.
And he does it because he knows how to speak to his constituents and his people.
But, you know, that was just a mistake that we didn't need.
And it's over.
It's happened.
But he did to his credit, to his credit.
He did pull that down when he found out that picture was there.
And, you know, but no one's going to give him credit for that because they don't give him credit.
They just detract.
All right.
We'll talk to you on TV tomorrow night.
Joe Takapina, President Trump's attorney in the New York case.
As the grand jury meeting, even as we speak, we'll wait and see if anything is breaking or forthcoming.
Joe, thank you.
800-941-Sean, our number, if you want to be a part of the program, your calls are coming up straight ahead.
I want to go back to something that got no attention last week, and that is, you know, Winkin Blinken, Tony Blinken, admitting.
Now, remember, Joe, by I'm not leaving Afghanistan until every American is safe and secure and out.
They left tons of Americans there.
I know of operations that are ongoing to this day to help people escape the Taliban and escape and get out of Afghanistan.
And yet here's Tony Blinken admitting 175 Americans are in Afghanistan today.
And then he took it a step further.
And many of them are being held hostage.
They have kept this from we, the American people, the entire time, held hostage by the Taliban.
And our government isn't lifting a finger.
They wouldn't even tell us the truth.
Listen.
The commitment holds to get everyone out that, in fact, we can get out and everyone should come out.
And that's the objective.
That's what we're doing now.
That's the path we're on.
And I think we'll get to that.
So Americans should understand the troops might have to be there beyond August 31st.
No, Americans should understand that we're going to try to get it done before August 31st.
But if we don't, if we don't, we'll determine at the time who's left.
And if there are American forces, if there's American citizens left, we're going to stay till we get them all out.
Mr. Secretary, how many American citizens and licensed permanent residents are in Afghanistan today, and are any of them currently being held hostage by the Taliban?
Congressman, there are several Americans who are being detained by the Taliban.
We are working to secure their freedom.
The families have asked that we protect their identities and don't speak publicly to their cases.
Now, those who are being detained, how many other Americans?
How many other Americans?
There are approximately, let me put it this way, since August 31st of last year, we have helped about 975 American citizens who wished to leave Afghanistan do so.
As we speak, Americans who identify themselves to us, American citizens who identify themselves to us who are in Afghanistan, some of whom have been there since the withdrawal, some of whom went back to Afghanistan.
There are about, that we're in contact with, about 175.
44 of them are ready to leave, and we are working to effectuate their departure.
I mean, it's just like, you know, the Iranian hostage crisis.
Imagine if Donald Trump was president, the Taliban had killed 13 Americans, and we left tens of billions of dollars worth of military equipment, sophisticated military technology to the Taliban.
And we left Americans behind and now had American POWs there, basically prisoners of war, or let's say, you know, or hostages, whatever term you prefer.
All right, let's get to our busy phones.
Many of you are very patient.
Don in Wisconsin, Don, hi, how are you?
Glad you called.
Good, sir.
I don't want to keep that.
Just got a couple comments.
I respect you, and I know you're really good for our country.
But I was wondering if there's any way to set up a meeting to get Trump and DeSantos to put their egos aside and maybe combine on a ticket to, we can't afford another Joe Biden.
And if, you know, I always thought that Trump wants to run again, that's good for four.
But if it was me and I was Trump, I'd invite DeSantis on the ticket and tell him he'll be the most hands-on vice president in the history of our country.
Well, I'll be asking the president.
I really have one question because I don't know why this has happened.
So I'm going to ask President Trump about, because it's the most asked question I get.
When I go out and meet people, people say hi.
We talk politics a little bit.
And people will ask me, you know, what's going on with President Trump and Governor DeSantis?
I know both of them.
I've always liked both of them.
Ron DeSantis has not declared yet that he's running.
It appears to me now that it looks like he's going to run.
So I'm just going to simply ask President Trump, because they used to be friends, what happened?
And I'll let him tell his story.
When I have DeSantis on, I'll let him tell his story.
I would just like, you know, listen, I'm with you.
I'd rather people get along.
Let me tell you one thing, though, Don.
I've been doing this a long time.
And as much as we would prefer a united front and every Republican, you know, fighting, basically being on the same team and every Republican, you know, staying amongst each other.
I got to tell you, at some point during a primary, it's going to get very nasty and very ugly because there's so much at stake.
It always happens.
But it's happening now at the beginning of the campaign.
This will usually happen after Iowa, New Hampshire.
South Carolina, the gloves start coming off, and it's a bare knuckles brawl by then.
So this is pretty early for that.
If the guys down and talk.
If I had my way, I would have everybody more focused on how bad the country is in a total, complete mess.
It's a disaster since Joe's been president.
I'm really worried about China, Russia, Iran, Saudi Arabia, the new alliances being created.
Don't think it was an accident when we saw Putin and Xi, you know, say that, you know, this is an opportunity we've not seen in 100 years.
That was done on purpose.
That was a message to America that we basically saying we see that you're weak and we're going to exploit it to the max.
That's a scary alliance to me because they're both hostile actors.
You know, we've seen what evil Putin is capable of.
Just wait until Taiwan is taken over by China, which I predict will happen.
One other quick comment.
I don't want to keep you.
You've got other calls and stuff, but what can we do as Republicans to ensure that the elections are going to be fair?
That's my other big concern.
The thing, and I'll discuss this with President Trump as well.
The thing about elections and fairness to me comes down to very simple things.
Republicans have made a tactical mistake by resisting early voting, mail-in voting.
And Republicans are not involved in the legal, and I say the word legal because most states allow some version of ballot harvesting.
And Democrats, they're masters at it.
They don't campaign anymore.
They don't run on ideas.
They run hundreds of millions of dollars in negative ads, and they do have ballot harvesting operations that are very well funded and very sophisticated.
And Republicans are out there shaking hands, kissing babies, taking selfies, doing town halls, talking to the media, having media avails.
And meanwhile, Democrats hide as much as they can, and they're getting elected because their strategies are working.
It is a vote-gathering strategy.
It's not a we have a better idea.
Please vote for us because our ideas are better.
As a result, Republicans are starting out Election Day down hundreds of thousands of votes, and it's now becoming impossible to make up.
So they better change how they approach elections, and they better match and hopefully even do a better job of what the Democrats are doing.
And I've been saying this every day.
I'm now getting repetitive, but I won't stop saying it until they start doing it.
I don't see that there's any coordinated effort out there to fix and balance out the ballot harvesting activities of the Democratic Party.
Look, you've got other calls.
I don't want to take up your time.
I just want to tell you how much I respect you, and I really appreciate what you do for our country.
Don, God bless you.
And I wouldn't have this microphone if it was not for people like you.
Thank you, my friend.
Larry is in Ohio, the great state of Ohio.
Larry, where in Ohio are you?
Well, actually, I'm a resident of the great state of Indiana, but I said Cincinnati because I'm very close.
And I'm actually calling you from Wichita.
Wait a minute.
So that means you know about Willie Cunningham, right?
The great Willie Cunningham, Bill Cunningham.
Absolutely.
All right, tell me, Bill Cunningham, whenever I do his, I do it in imitation of him.
He goes, do I really sound like that?
And I'm like, yes.
Sean Hannity, you're a great American.
God bless you.
God bless America.
I want a full report.
Is that fairly accurate?
That's pretty accurate.
That's pretty dead on, isn't it?
Yes, it is.
You do a great impression.
Anyway, I try.
What's on your mind today, my friend?
Well, first, I just wanted to say thank you for taking my call, and thanks for all you do to expose the truth.
And I wanted to build on an idea that Linda threw out last Friday.
She said what she'd really like to see is a C-SPAN camera at every congressman's desk to make sure they read the bills before they vote on them.
And she's absolutely right.
But there's actually, I think, a better way to accomplish that.
And I know you're familiar with the work of the Convention of States Organization.
They are trying to put together a Convention of States to propose amendments to the Constitution that would limit the power and scope of the federal government, drive fiscal responsibility, and impose term limits on lots of federal offices.
And just imagine if we could get an amendment in place that would limit bills to be single-issue bills and no longer than 10 or 20 pages.
It would get us out of this craziness.
I think the immoral, frankly, process we have where we put together these 2,000-page bills and then give congressmen a half a day or a day to read them.
Nobody can go through that much material in that short a time.
And frankly, I think voting on that sort of thing is that, well, again, it's immoral.
We're signing Americans up for massive spending that even congressmen voting on it don't really know what's in there.
Look, what you're describing has gone on all the years I've been talking about politics.
And do I agree with you that it should happen?
Yes.
We need a top-down, we need, frankly, a cleansing.
I don't do body cleanses, but, you know, we just need a cleansing of our government.
And I'll be honest, I think we should shrink dramatically the size and scope and influence of government.
I think we should put a lot more power back into the hands of states.
And I think states should be deciding a lot of these things.
I don't think any of that's going to happen.
If you look at the woke agenda, I mean, you have, you know, billions of dollars of money committed to every department of all these departments, transportation and energy and even our own military for climate initiatives.
And I'm like, they have bought into this.
It is a religious cult of climate alarmism.
And it's costing us a fortune.
And it is, frankly, destroying the economy.
It's hurting our competitiveness.
It's weakening our military and our preparedness, military preparedness.
And we're the only idiots that are doing this.
And then you can add to that funding globalist organizations like the WEF or the WHO.
Anyway, I appreciate the call, Larry.
God bless you.
You're a great American, my friend.
Let us say hi to James in Florida.
James, hi, how are you?
Glad you called.
Pretty great, Sean.
It's great to be able to visit with you.
I echo the gentleman before you.
I've been listening to you for a long time, and truly, you guys, you and everybody at Fox and your radio guy, your team there in this era of a banana republic we're living in, we listen to you every day because you really do give us hope.
Well, I appreciate, listen, I always say this, and I mean it.
It's not just words.
I don't have a show without you listening.
I don't have a TV show without you watching.
It's my pleasure.
It's my passion.
And frankly, it's going to be all of us united that take that get the proper change we needed in this country.
We need a dramatic course correction right now.
We are in deep trouble on foreign policy.
We're in deep trouble economically.
I don't like it.
I'm very concerned about our future.
Well, no doubt.
And as bleak as it looks, because it, you know, for the average person here that I am and my routine throughout my day and my little life, it's extremely bleak.
And I think everybody should have, remember, faith in our Constitution.
And ultimately, it will prevail.
And we may go through some hard times 2090.
But let me say what I really call Sean is this: I'm from Texas, but I'm here in Florida, and I have family that lives down in Brownsville.
If people really understood what's really going on with the border, I mean, I'm not trying to pull a fire alarm in a theater, but I am.
If people are here, we have terrorists now in this country.
And what I don't understand is I can understand why.
I mean, I'm disgusted with our Democratic senators that don't have the integrity or the backbone.
They're complicit in this, each and every one of them, by letting this continue.
We can blame Biden as we should, but the Democrats are just as complicit.
It's going to happen sooner or later.
It'd be the same thing if Biden said all of a sudden, Sean, well, the TSA is racist, so we're not going to have the TSA at airports anymore.
What's the real difference?
Look, I mean, if you ask me if I could name a single thing that Biden has done that's successful, I really can't.
I mean, that's the measure.
Here's another measure: Are you better off since Joe Biden's been elected president?
Is the country better off?
Are you personally better off?
You know, to me, the answer is obvious.
And these are the questions that Americans are going to have to ask themselves.
And I'll couple that with what I said during the last call: Republicans got to not reimagine, I hate that word.
Republicans have got to rethink and strategize how to match the legal ballot harvesting efforts that the Democrats are successfully using.
And unless and until we fight on that ground, we'll lose elections.
Anyway, we're all worried about the next election because they're very dirty and very good at cheating.
They better fix it now and match those efforts now and get over their reluctance and resistance on early voting and voting by mail.
Appreciate the call, my friend.
God bless you.
Glad you're out there.
All right, that's going to wrap things up for today.
Looks like there's not going to be any indictment.
Apparently, no vote in the Manhattan grand jury today.
But yes, it's week two of Indictment Watch.
That will be part of our discussion with Donald Trump.
My one-hour interview with Donald Trump tonight in full, 9 Eastern on the Fox News channel.
You'll only see it there.
His first on-camera interview since all of this has gone down, and he's got a lot to say.
Nine Eastern tonight, set your DVR.
Hannity, Fox News.
We'll see it tonight.
We'll react to it tomorrow right here on this show.
Thank you for making this show possible.
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.
Export Selection