All right, news roundup, information overload hour.
Glad you're with us.
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If you want to be a part of the program, so much to talk about today.
It's really unbelievable what's going on in the country and the world at large.
Now, for example, I want to tell you about the Biden administration.
They have now released a new Title IX ruling, and it bars states from banning transgender women in sports.
In other words, Joe Biden shockingly gave in to the radical left of his party.
Again, there are some exceptions for high school and some college athletes, but there's been one person nationally that has been the most outspoken and the most articulate, the most courageous, frankly, in all of this, and that is the former NCAA swimmer, Riley Gaines.
And she is now taking aim at the Biden ruling, saying that they are, quote, catering to a radical minority, others including, you know, for example, the trans swimmer Leah Thomas.
They want Biden to take this regulation even further, which I think is outrageous.
Now, it came up yesterday in a hearing with the Secretary of Education, asked a simple question.
Can you define a woman?
Listen to the exchange.
What's the definition of a woman?
You haven't given me that.
You haven't answered my question.
I think that's almost secondary to the important role that I have as Secretary of Education.
My question is not secondary.
My question is very simple.
What does HHS say the definition of a woman is?
I lead the Department of Education, and my job is to make sure that all students have access to public education, which includes co-curricular activities.
And I think you highlighted pretty well the importance of Title IX and giving students equal access, whether it's scholarship and facilities.
Thanks to your participation question.
Now, the question is, is it fair to female athletes?
Title IX requires parity.
It requires fairness.
It requires that if you're giving away X number of scholarships to men playing football or basketball or baseball, whatever the sport is, it doesn't matter, that women should have equal opportunity to have their own sports.
Anyway, we welcome to the program Riley Gaines, 12-time All-American swimmer, five SEC titles.
The most successful swimmer ever at the University of Kentucky, one of the most successful ever in the country.
She's now pursuing a dental degree anyway, and she's been outspoken and she's paid a political price for it.
I mean, they literally had to hide her in a room for three hours when she was trying to give a speech at a school in San Francisco.
Riley, how are you?
Glad you could be with us.
Hi, I'm Sean.
It's good to talk to you again.
I want to go over, I just want people to understand your childhood, when you first started swimming, when you got really dedicated to swimming, and how many hours a day from what age were you in a pool practicing?
I like this question because it's something that's often overlooked.
But I started swimming when I was four years old.
And so, again, I'm 22 now, so I've dedicated 18 years of my life to my sport.
I started swimming year-round when I was eight years old.
This meant that in second grade, as early as second grade, you're swimming two hours every single day.
And it really only gets harder from there because by the time you get to middle school and high school, you're practicing before school.
And then you go to school.
After school, you go right back to practice once you get home from school.
But you weren't just practicing before school.
You were in the pool for three hours before school ever started, right?
Absolutely.
At the collegiate level, you're practicing three hours before 8 a.m.
Then you go to class all day and you come back and you swim again from 1.30 to 4.30.
So you have no time for anything else.
There's so much, of course, dedication that goes into it, but there's also social sacrifices you have to make.
I didn't get to go to prom.
I didn't get to go on vacations.
I didn't get to have sleepovers with my friends.
And again, no one forced us to do that, but that's what we were willing to do to compete at that level.
You know, the amazing thing, now you did compete against Leah Thomas, and I'll play her comments about this in a second.
Now, you tied her, but they gave first place to her.
How did that happen?
Well, I asked.
You know, exactly right, we tied.
We go behind the podium.
The official looks at both Thomas and myself and says, great job.
You guys tied, but Leah takes the trophy.
And so I questioned this, which they weren't prepared to answer because they hadn't been questioned.
And when I say they, I mean they need to go play.
They had been questioned for anything they've done thus far.
And so he just kind of stumbled on his words and said, oh, well, Leah has to have the trophy for photo purposes.
You can pose with this one, but you'll give it back.
You go home empty-handed.
Leah takes the trophy.
And so that's what thrusted me into this position of, okay, someone has to say something.
It felt like betrayal.
It felt like belittlement.
It felt like these officials, they reduced everything that I had worked again my entire life for down to a photo op to validate the feelings and the identity of a male.
Let me play Leah Thomas because she wants more action from the Biden administration as it relates to trans women in sports.
Listen.
It breaks my heart to see trans kids across the country lose out on these opportunities.
The Department of Education has proposed a new rule for Title IX regarding transgender athletes.
This rule would prohibit blanket bans on transgender kids, especially in grades K through eight.
However, it would not prohibit discrimination against trans kids in the high school and college levels under the guise of competitive fairness.
This rule is a good start.
However, it is not enough.
I listened to that and I'm thinking it is such an unfair advantage based on the comments that I made about what Caitlin Jenner has said.
Now, Caitlin Jenner is on your side on this.
Did you know that?
I'm sure you do.
Absolutely, I do, yes.
Now, I wonder maybe the answer is, what do you think of this idea?
Okay, so you have men's sports, you have women's sports, and how about they create another category we'll call trans sports.
You know, I think in an ideal world, if we could work out the finances behind it, if we could garner enough people to play in this division, kind of iron out all the kinks and the logistics of it, I think this is the perfect solution to the problem, especially in sports where you're competing individually, like swimming or track and field or whatever that might look like.
I think it's a way to truthfully embrace the trans community.
It's a way to ensure everyone has athletic opportunity, everyone has chances for success, and everyone competes where it's fair and where it's safe, which is what my whole argument is behind allowing men to compete against women.
It's not fair and it's not safe.
What happened when you went to speak at that school in San Francisco?
Tell everybody that story.
Absolutely.
So I was invited to San Francisco State to, by Turning Point USA, to come speak at an event.
I agreed.
I showed up to the event.
I thought I knew what I was getting myself into by arriving in San Francisco.
I knew, of course, these people, there would be a large majority of people who didn't agree with me, especially among the college campus.
And so I was able to deliver my speech.
I could hear some chanting from outside the classroom, from protesters screaming things such as trans women are women.
But as my speech went on, I could hear these chants from outside the classroom getting closer and closer to the door.
And so there was a point when the speech was wrapping up.
Again, I could hear these people outside.
One side of the hallway would yell, trans rights are under attack.
The other side would yell back, what do we do?
We fight back.
And I mentioned that because I just think it's so ironic the verbiage they used because they kept using the term we fight back.
And just the day before this incident at the beginning of April, the press secretary of the Biden administration came out in a press conference and said, you know, our trans community, they're resilient.
They fight back.
And so I kept hearing that verbiage, we fight back.
And I couldn't, the irony is uncanny.
But I delivered my speech.
It was only after my speech when everyone stood up to leave.
And all of a sudden, these protesters who were outside the room, they rushed in.
They turned the lights off in the room.
They physically assaulted myself and some other members in the room.
An officer came up and grabbed me.
We evacuated the room, but weren't able to exit the building because the staircases were blocked by protesters.
So ultimately, we were barricaded in a separate classroom building for three hours.
I missed my flight home.
These protesters, they demanded money from me if I wanted to make it home safely.
They kept saying, you know, you're getting paid to be here.
Why don't you have, you should have to pay us if you want to leave here?
Which, first of all, that was a misconception.
The university paid me nothing to be there.
But truly, I mean, it was like I was being held for ransom.
And the officers, the police officers, I, of course, respect all law enforcement, but these officers did a very poor job in executing their job because they were scared of these protesters.
They didn't want to be accused of being anything other than an ally to this community.
The administration, after this, they released a statement saying word for word, we applaud our students who acted so brave in this peaceful protest, not once saying we uphold the freedom of speech and not once condemning violence against women.
So overall, it was handled extremely poorly by many members involved.
Can I offer you, my daughter's around your age, and I don't, I'm not an athlete like you are by any stretch of the imagination, but I trained an hour and a half a day in mixed martial arts, an eclectic blend.
I've been doing it 11 years.
And, you know, I always tell people that are not trained to learn a few simple things to protect themselves, not to win a fight, but how to escape.
And I just urge you to please, in the future, please travel with security.
If anyone's asking you to speak, they must provide that security for you.
If they're not willing to provide it, don't go.
Because, you know what, that sounds like it really got out of hand and it became a real clear present danger for you.
And I never want anything to happen to you.
The same thing I tell my daughter all the time to be very careful, very aware of your surroundings.
You know, know where the exits are, have a plan everywhere I go.
All right, quick break.
We'll have more with Riley Gaines on the other side.
then your call is 800-941-SEAN, our number if you want to be a part of the program as we continue.
On the stories that matter most to you.
Sean Hennedy's on right now.
All right, we continue with Riley Gaines, 12-time All-American Swimmer, five SEC titles, one of the best college swimmers of all time.
And the political statement that she's been making, and it's been very powerful, her testimony as we continue.
Let me play for you a Ron DeSantis ad that came out yesterday about this issue of trans women in sports.
Dean DeSantis presents.
Real man of women's sports.
Today we recognize the men who've hacked the system.
Hack the system.
Once mediocre in the men's division, now cream of the crop in the women's.
From mediocre to champion.
You couldn't cut it with the boys, so you pushed women off the podium.
Because without you, sports would be fair.
Without you, women's sports would be for, well, women.
Your reaction to that, I thought it was funny and made a point.
And it's a point I agree with.
You've worked too hard.
You've devoted, you've dedicated such a large percentage of your youth to become, to perform at the highest level in your sport.
And it should be a fair competition.
You know, you're probably in college of last year, weren't you the top swimmer in all of college at the time?
Yeah, I was able to finish my career as the SEC record holder in the 200 butterfly.
So the fastest, one of the fastest Americans of all time.
So I accomplished some really amazing things.
And listening to that clip, you're right.
It's funny.
It's comical.
Of course, it's supposed to be satire, but truthfully, the satire has turned into a reality.
Same thing you see the posts that Babylon Bee makes, and they're funny, but you kind of sit back and it's like, I can't even tell if these are real anymore because things of this caliber are actually happening.
And so it's a funny job.
It's hilarious.
It makes, you know, it highlights the mockery that men are and people who are advocating for this.
Someone like Representative Katie Porter, who just a few days ago came out and said that I'm doing this all for clicks and likes and all of the things, which is so silly.
It highlights how insane this whole ideology that's being pushed, especially in regards to sports where your sex, your biology, your anatomy, your physiology, I mean, down to the chromosomal level, it matters.
And we're choosing to ignore that, which is denying science.
It's denying reason, logic, common sense, and quite frankly, the truth.
Let me ask you, I know you want to pursue a dental degree, which is, you know, a great ambition and a great job.
Have you thought about the Olympics?
I've tried.
I tried for the Olympics in both 2016 and 2021.
When I went in 2016, I was only 15 years old.
So I was pretty young.
I was one of the youngest ones there.
Tried again in 2020, was potentially thinking about staying on and trying again in 2024.
But I decided it's just, as we've mentioned, it's so much work that has to go into it to potentially make top two in the country.
And so I've decided to really step away from that.
And so I'm doing lots of triathlons.
I'm doing running, finding other ways to continue being competitive, which is another part that is important to mention.
It's hard when you finish competing at that level to then stop competing altogether.
And so I'm finding other ways to stay active and continue with the competitive drive that I do have.
Well, you're an amazing athlete.
You're an amazing person.
You show enormous courage in taking this issue on.
And my belief is because of that courage, you're going to help a lot of young female athletes be able to compete in the future on an equal playing field because there should not be a biological advantage for one swimmer over another.
So we support your efforts.
If there's anything we could ever do to get your message out, you're always welcome on TV, radio, anytime you want.
Amazing.
I appreciate you so much, Sean.
Thank you.
You bet.
Thank you.
Congratulations on all your success as well.
All right, 25 now to the top of the hour.
Get to your calls, 800-941-Sean, our number, if you want to be a part of the program.
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All right, you're dying to hear my story.
You have no idea.
All right, so if you're just joining us, we had Riley Gaines on, who's been fighting back.
She's one of the best swimmers in college history and an amazing person also.
And she had battled with Leah Thomas, had a tie, and they gave Leah Thomas the championship, which, by the way, is unheard of.
If they tie, that means they both come in first place.
It's that simple.
Putting that aside, she is now championing the idea of women's rights in sports and Title IX, which the Biden administration now wants to eliminate.
They want to allow trans, in other words, people that were born biologically men to compete in women's sports.
And even Caitlin Jenner saying there's a huge unfair advantage.
And as this ad by DeSantis says, okay, maybe they swam for the men's team and they were mediocre.
And now they go and they're trans and they swim on the women's team and they're dominant.
Okay, that ought to tell you something right there.
Long story short, so my sisters were all AAU swimmers.
They were great swimmers.
My sister, two of them to this day, I know swim regularly.
And my mother, I was into hockey, football, basketball, baseball.
You know, I didn't really pick a sport like we do now with kids.
If you want your kids to play a college sport, probably by the time they're 10, the latest, nine, the latest, they got to pick one sport and stick with it.
If they want to play D1, whatever, pick the sport.
Anyway, so my mother tried to get me to swim.
And in the wintertime, she would take all of us to Long Beach.
I lived in Franklin Square, Long Island, a pretty long drive.
And we'd all go swimming.
And I'd get in the water and I'd swim there and back.
In the winter?
Yeah, in the winter, in indoor pool, obviously.
Oh, you needed to.
It was not your Michael Phelps swim spot.
What is going on?
My master spa.
I don't have a Michael Phelps swim spa.
You never got me one.
But anyway, putting that aside.
So I swim there and I swim back.
And the coach goes, well, you got to keep going.
I'm like, you want me to go back again?
I'm like, I start arguing with the guy.
I'm like, what's the point of that?
He goes, well, that's how you become a better swimmer.
I said, well, I don't want to be a better swimmer.
I want to go in that pool where the diving board was.
They even had a platform at the time.
And I wanted to dive into the water from the high dive, which I did.
And I wanted to do can openers and cannonballs and splash dives and have fun.
And anyway, so long story short, my prison guard mother shows up and she sees that I'm not in the regular swimming pool, but I'm having a blast in the other swimming pool.
And man, I will tell you, she probably wanted to kill me that day.
And I'm like, why would I ever want to swim there and swim back and do it again?
I said, I can swim.
I'll show you my freestyle stroke.
I'll show you my breaststroke.
I could never figure out how to get myself up to a butterfly.
Couldn't figure that one out at all.
You know, I do one great butterfly and then the other part, you know, acting like a dolphin didn't work for me.
My body was not configured to swim butterfly.
You're laughing.
Why are you laughing so hard?
I said, I can't do any of it.
So, you know, I do doggy paddle and I bail.
And I got punished, by the way.
You know what my punishment was?
I wanted.
No.
Do you remember those old coffee machines that you could get chicken broth with?
And you know, I love chicken broth to this day.
No.
Yeah.
It was a coffee machine where you put in, you know, 25 cents, you get a cup of coffee.
If you wanted milk and sugar, you press milk and sugar, or you can get chicken broth.
And I wanted chicken broth.
And she says, no, you're not getting chicken broth.
I said, why not?
She goes, because you didn't swim.
I said, I was swimming, you know, for the entire time in the diving pool.
All right.
So I have to ask one question.
Were the lessons free or did she pay for them?
I assume she paid for them.
That's why she's pissed.
This is why she's pissed.
Because you're doing cannonballs for $20 instead of taking your lesson.
I saw you're only 20 bucks.
Now, my sisters were more, they like swimming.
And good for them.
I'm like, fine.
I'm like, I have no interest in practicing that hard.
And that brings, that really does highlight somebody like, you know, in this case, Riley Gaines, who has, you know, would swim five, three hours before school.
That means she has to get up at like four o'clock in the morning.
I mean, that's insane.
And then after school, swim for three more hours.
I mean, that's six hours in a pool a day.
Now, that made her the top swimmer in the country in college.
I admire her.
You know, both my kids are athletes.
And honestly, it was the best decision I made is that even on the worst weekend when they weren't doing well, it didn't matter to me because I knew they weren't with their dopey friends.
I knew they weren't out drinking, doing drugs and other things that I'm not allowed to mention.
And getting in trouble like I did.
Like I had no supervision growing up.
That was about the extent of the supervision I had growing up.
Cannonballs.
Full circle.
I used to do what was called a can opener, cannonballs, and then I do the splash.
They're talking away.
So Katie and Ethan are both.
They know how to swim.
You used to swim.
I swam from like eight until I was recruited by a bunch of schools.
I could have swam D1, but instead I decided to intern for you.
Well, that was a dumb choice.
That was about as dumb a choice you could make.
I was actually, I did not want to swim.
I played baseball.
I played a bunch of different sports.
And why did you do it?
My parents wanted me in it, and I blew out my knee playing baseball.
Really dumb.
Oh, so now you had no choice.
Swimming actually rehabbed it.
And if you're just swimming laps and you're not doing it like in sets or having times, then it can get really boring.
But now they even have headphones that you can wear while you're training.
Okay, it's funny you say that.
One of my best friends, John Gomez, my best friend from third grade, he swims every day for like an hour.
And he has this whole thing, he has a snorkel thing, so he doesn't have to turn his head to breathe when he's doing freestyle.
And he's got music playing in his ears.
He's always loved music since we were young.
And he has his own set list.
And he just takes a sweet ass time.
He's not racing and just swims back and forth, back and forth, listening to the music.
Keeps trying to get me.
I have a pool in my backyard.
Keeps trying to get me to convert it to salt water.
I'm like, I'm not turning that into salt water.
He said, you go turn it into salt water.
Anyway, Katie, you used to swim too?
Yeah, I swam all through summer league from the time I was eight or nine years old.
And I threw through, I swam through high school too.
College did ask me to come, but I went to a different college.
I chose a different one because I wanted to do radio, television, and film.
And that's where I went.
So kind of the same thing.
I would have advised both of you to stick with swimming, but I'm glad you're here, both of you.
So that's my story.
But did your sisters do anything with it?
Well, no, because they got interested in other things.
They all became nurses at one point.
Oh, that's right.
That's right.
And then they all left nursing at another point.
And went back to swimming?
No, no.
One became a lawyer.
It's a long story.
I will say it is one of the best exercises, especially if you have bad jobs.
It is the dullest, most monotonous, the most boring thing I can ever think of.
But when you have those headphones and you're listening to your own music, you could even listen to your podcast or listeners.
You could listen to the Sean Hannity podcast and whatnot.
You're killing two birds with one stone at that point because you're keeping yourself healthy.
You're keeping yourself around.
It's a good exercise.
I would rather punch a heavy bag or lift weights or do mixed martial arts.
I'm just a heavy bag, break your finger.
Let's talk about the injuries you've incurred with your exercising.
Nobody has noticed, but my right hand in particular, I've broken every finger.
You know you wouldn't do that swimming.
We would say we didn't notice.
We're just very kind.
We don't mention that you look like a mangled mess.
We just let you, you know, go about your day.
Yeah.
It's pretty awful.
I mean, I saw the pinky and I was like, wow, that's really ugly.
What about this one?
Dude, your hands are gross.
Just disgusting.
I mean, we've noticed.
Let me tell you, what I meant to say was we can see the work.
The work is evident.
You're putting a lot of work in.
Good for you.
Your hands are proof of the work.
Listen, I've gotten so strong.
I got up 230 pounds.
How many times did I do it?
Seven times.
That was my record.
I curled the entire rack.
I don't even know how many pounds it is.
I just don't.
And I've gotten up dumbbells, which is harder.
I've gotten up 200-pound dumbbells just a couple of times.
That's my record.
I mean, I did 90-pound dumbbells this week.
What did I do?
I did maybe four times.
I'm surprised you can even curl those jacked up hands.
I mean, they are, it's rough, dude.
No, let me tell you, and I'm screaming when I do it.
Oh, but I'm like, you know, like that.
See, one of the drills that Riley probably would have done in what I did in high school and in college was we used to do drills where we would swim a lap and then do 10 curls or 10 barbells at the end of every lap or 10.
Swimming will make you strong.
There's no doubt about it.
Yeah, after five minutes of that, you're dead.
Yeah, well, let me tell you something.
That ain't going to happen.
It didn't happen back then.
My mother couldn't even bribe me with chicken broth, which I love.
Did you ever, you just, you just sit in that hot tub of yours.
That's all you want.
I will tell you one funny thing.
So the hot tub has the current that you can explain.
The Michael Phelps swim spa.
Yes, this is a true story.
So I turn this thing on.
You know me, I don't read the manual.
I don't have time for that.
So I turn all the buttons on.
Why read the manual?
So let me guess, full pressure.
Oh, my God.
And it blows you down the other side and you can't get out.
I was in my neighbor's yard.
I was like, oh, my God.
So anyways, I slow it down.
It has two row bars that you can put in.
And you basically can do all this rowing.
So if you want to cut up your arms, your triceps, things like that.
Yo, man, I'll tell you, it is an awesome workout.
In the last 10 years, you could tell people, I don't think people would notice it on TV, how much muscle have I put on?
You?
Yeah.
Oh, a ton.
Ton.
I mean, actually, somebody said to me the other day, you're beginning now to look like a linebacker.
I don't know what that means, but you know what?
I'm happy that you're built, and that's great.
I don't know what that means.
I used to have a picture here of like, Katie put pictures up for me.
I got a question.
What different positions?
No, what is a linebacker?
I truly don't know.
It's one of the people on the team.
That I know.
All right, let me get some calls here.
That's the truth.
I don't know.
800-941-Sean, if you want to be a part of the program.
Daryl in Michigan.
Daryl, how are you?
Go Blue.
What's going on?
Hey, how's it going?
I'm good, man.
What's going on?
Where in Michigan are you?
I'm in Norton Shores.
Glad you called.
Hey, I wanted to thank you, first of all, for following your passion and being willing to do what you do every day.
Thank you for letting me do it because I can't do it without you.
Well, the question I had for you, the comment is I've heard you say multiple times that the Republicans need to do what the Democrats are doing, legal ballot harvesting, early voting.
And it always bothered me to my core because I guess I would say just on that face, I don't agree.
So I think the best thing for me to do would be to ask you, what about those things makes you think that that is going to make a difference?
Well, there's actually one other thing.
You can't run like Doug Mastriano or Tudor Dixon, who I like a lot.
And she's been on my TV show many times, even since the election, she would have been a much better governor for you.
But if Republicans don't embrace early voting and voting by mail, and if they don't up their game with legal ballot harvesting and compete with the Democrats, we're not going to win elections.
That is why it is imperative that they get this resolved.
Imperative.
No ifs, no ands, no buts.
If you want to win elections, that's how you have to play the game.
Anyway, I hope that answers your question.
All right, that's going to wrap things up for today.
An amazing Hannity tonight, 9 Eastern on the Fox News channel, as we have an audience show.
James Comer now with big news about Zero Experience Hunter.
I mean, this is now blowing up.
We got nine Bidens now that are involved in this.
John Solomon has breaking news tonight.
I can't tell you about it now.
Marco Rubio, Larry Kudlow, Emily Campano, Tammy Bruce, Joe Concha.
Anyway, free tickets, Hannity.com.
If you want to come to the audience show, we have one tonight, one tomorrow night, and we hope you'll join us.