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June 22, 2023 - Sean Hannity Show
32:44
Tragedy at Sea - June 22nd, Hour 1
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We have a lot coming up today.
House Judiciary Committee Chair Jim Jordan, the IRS whistleblowers, the testimony they gave to the House Ways and Means Committee.
That chairman will join us as well.
We start with some sad news, however.
It now is official, sadly.
The five people that were on that submarine, the Titan, to go see the Titanic that went missing on their voyage to the wreckage are now believed to be dead.
The company that planned the trip saying in a statement, our very own Coast Guard made this announcement literally just three minutes ago.
Let me play it from the start.
Staff and I will be here to help you with any of your further needs.
May I now please introduce rear admiral John Mauger.
This morning an rov or remote operated vehicle from the vessel Horizon Arctic discovered the tail cone of the Titan submersible approximately 1600 feet from the bow of the Titanic
on the seafloor.
The ROV subsequently found additional debris.
In consultation with experts from within the Unified Command, the debris is consistent with the catastrophic loss of the pressure chamber.
Upon this determination, we immediately notified the families.
On behalf of the United States Coast Guard and the entire Unified Command, Unified Command, I offer my deepest condolences to the families.
I can only imagine what this has been like for them.
And I hope that this discovery provides some solace during this difficult time.
Additionally, we've been in close contact with the British and French Consuls General to ensure that they are fully apprised and that their concerns are being addressed.
The outpouring of support in this highly complex search operation has been robust and immensely appreciated.
We are grateful for the rapid mobilization of experts on the undersea search and rescue, and we thank all of the agencies and personnel for their role in the response.
We're also incredibly grateful for the full spectrum of international assistance that's been provided.
The ROVs will remain on scene and continue to gather information.
Again, our most heartfelt condolences go out to the loved ones of the crew.
We'll now take questions.
We are fine.
Can you talk about the delay in recording the vessel missing and what it might go ahead on the recovery?
This was an incredibly complex case, and we're still working to develop the details for the timeline involved with this casualty and the response.
And so we'll provide that eventually.
James Matthews from Sky News.
John, what other debris have you found?
And have you found any trace of those who are so this is an incredibly complex operating environment on the seafloor over two miles beneath the surface and so the remote operating vehicle has been searching and it is highly capable and we've been able to classify parts of the pressure chamber for the Titan submersible.
Let me refer to one of my undersea experts here, Mr. Paul Hankin, to talk about the nature of some of the debris.
Thank you, Admiral.
So essentially we found five different major pieces of debris that told us that it was the remains of the Titan.
The initial thing we found was the nose cone which was outside of the pressure hull.
We then found a large debris field.
Within that large debris field we found the front end bell of the pressure hull.
That was the first indication that there was a catastrophic event.
Shortly thereafter we found a second smaller debris field.
Within that debris field we found the other end of the pressure hull, the aft end bell, which was basically the comprised the totality of that pressure vessel.
We continue to map the debris field and as the Admiral said we will do the best we can to fully map out what's down there.
Thank you very much.
It's a very difficult question to ask but it will be an important one for the families of course.
What are the prospects of recovering the bodies of the disabled people?
So the questions was related and I'm restating the question from the standpoint of sometimes it's hard to hear the question here.
What are the prospects for recovering crew members?
And so this is an incredibly unforgiving environment down there on the sea floor.
And the debris is consistent with a catastrophic implosion of the vessel.
And so we'll continue to work and continue to search the area down there.
But I don't have an answer for prospects at this time.
Everyone's talking about NBC News.
What do you suggest?
Sorry, any suggestion at all that the sub itself collided with the wreckage of Titanic or that instead it might have imploded above the wreckage and then rained down nearby?
So the question was: Is there any question as to whether or not the sub collided with the Titanic or whether it imploded above and debris field created from that?
So the location of the Titan submersible was in an area that was approximately 1,600 feet from the wreck of the Titanic.
I have an expert here that is familiar with that area and can talk about the debris field and what the debris field indicates in terms of where the casualty may have occurred.
Rear Admiral, really quickly, can you tell me when that passive fleet will be called back?
The expert views is going up to answer the question.
Thank you, Admiral.
So the question is: where does the wreck lie in relation to the Titanic?
I didn't hear the Admiral's answer.
I think 1,600 feet.
Was that correct, Admiral?
So that's off the bow of Titanic.
It's in an area where there is not any debris of Titanic.
It is a smooth bottom.
To my knowledge and anything I've seen, there's no Titanic wreckage in that area.
And again, 200 plus meters from the bow and consistent with the location of last communication for an implosion in the water column.
And the size of the debris field is consistent with that implosion in the water column.
In terms of the timing here, you say that this was a catastrophic implosion.
And I know it's early on, but is it your estimation that this happened right at the moment when they lost contact an hour and 45 minutes after their descent?
So the question was about the timing of the catastrophic implosion.
Right now, it is too early to tell with that.
We know that as we've been prosecuting this search over the course of the last 72 hours and beyond, that we've had sonar buoys in the water nearly continuously and have not detected any catastrophic events when those sonar buoys have been in the water.
So.
And we describe what happens from here, sir, in the next days and the weeks in terms of finding any more debris.
What happens from here?
So we will, the question was, what happens from here?
What's the next phase?
And so right now, again, our thoughts are with the families and making sure that they have an understanding as best as we can provide of what happened and begin to find some closure.
In terms of the large process, we're going to continue to investigate the site of the debris field.
And then I know that there's also a lot of questions about how, why, and when did this happen?
And so, you know, those are questions that we will collect as much information as we can on now.
All right.
Sad news.
The first indication, the tail cone of this vessel, Titan, was discovered 1,600 feet.
It's a pretty long distance away from the bow of the Titanic.
They went into an additional, additional other debris was found as well.
Instantly, they came to the conclusion that this has resulted in a catastrophic loss of the pressure chamber and immediately notified the families of people that were in the Titan that, in fact, this had happened.
They also went into describing in some detail the area of the debris was not near the Titanic.
And the one expert that came on after the Admiral talked about an implosion water column, which basically sounds to me like a serious breach of Titan took place, and it just became probably an instantaneous catastrophic event by the sounds of it.
I'm just, at this point, I'm speculating.
It doesn't change the result.
The result is all passengers on board are now believed to be dead, and it is a catastrophic loss of life.
The search had passed the 96-hour mark earlier today when breathable air, they believe, would have run out.
They had a 96-hour supply.
It had not been tested.
I read in one of the articles whether or not that would be enough for all the people that were on board.
It was overdue Sunday afternoon.
It was on its way to see the Titanic underwater.
This is not their first trip.
It's taken by many people.
One interesting observation by somebody who'd gone on a previous expedition was he called it a suicide mission.
So, you know, that's the latest details we have with them.
But they had been saying as of yesterday that they heard of some banging noises, but warned that search crews had to put a whole picture together in the context of what was going on here.
That did offer some encouragement to many.
The U.S. Navy saying, you know, I mean, you had people from all over the world sending their best, brightest, their greatest equipment, you know, in the hopes of maybe having a miraculous rescue here.
Titan weighs 20,000 pounds.
U.S. Navy's flyaway deep ocean salvage system is designed to lift up to 60,000 pounds, the Navy said on their website.
That was an interesting, you know, that offered interesting potential as to because that's, you know, almost three times what that the Titan weighed.
So they did have some ability, a salvage system designed to lift up to 60,000 pounds, this, of course, being 20,000 pounds.
But anyway, at least 46 people had successfully traveled on Ocean Gate submersible to the Titanic wreck since 2021 and 2022.
As I mentioned, one account by one person who had been on a previous trip said that this was a suicide mission.
Didn't sound like he was too pleased with how that went.
I guess it sounded very scary to this individual.
You know, is this something I'd ever want to do in my life?
No.
But do I admire people that want to do incredibly brave things?
Yeah, I do.
You know, the fact that man looked at the moon one day and said, we're going to fly there and did so.
And we're not only going to fly there, we're going to send men there and we're going to let them walk around on the moon.
Take a look at the moon one night.
It's pretty far away.
And then we're going to bring them back home safely.
And we've been able to accomplish that.
And in the course of space travel, yes, we've had some tragedies.
But if these people, these brave people, didn't take these endeavors, we never would have had the technology that we all just take for granted today, like flying a jet.
What about all these people that, you know, in the early days of aviation or, you know, the Wright brothers, start with them.
Think that was courageous?
I think it was courageous.
You know, that thing goes up in the air, you can't land it.
Guess what?
Your life's over.
Anyway, our prayers are with all the family members that were notified that they lost their loved ones.
Just sad to hear.
I don't know many people have been following it.
Quick break, right back.
We'll continue.
We'll tell you about these IRS whistleblowers as we continue.
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We'll keep you updated on any new news on the sad tragedy that we now know, the Titan.
In fact, earlier today, they discovered the tailcomb from the Titan about 1,600 feet from the bow of the Titanic, pretty big distance.
They found other debris as well, which led them to the obvious sad conclusion that there was a catastrophic loss of life in the pressure chamber and immediately notified the families.
It seems from early indications that there was an implosion of the water column.
I'm not exactly sure what that means.
I'm sure we'll find out and we'll keep you up to speed on that.
But I really do admire people that do things that I would not want to do.
I have no desire to go down in the Titan and go to see the wreckage of the Titanic, but many other people do.
And they successfully have taken people on those tours.
And that's something on their bucket list.
Now, my bucket list is very different.
I'd like to just eat as much as I can and not have to worry about it.
That's on my bucket list.
Some people want to climb Mount Everest.
There are people that lose their lives when they climb Mount Everest, but that is their goal.
That is their dream.
That's their desire, and they want to do it.
Or the highest summits in the world that they can possibly find.
I admire their adventurous spirit.
I give them a lot of credit.
These are not easy tasks.
You know, you think about all the progress that we have made.
You know, imagine the first person that got in a rocket ship headed to the moon.
And you're thinking, you know, one small step for man, one giant step for mankind.
I mean, think about that.
We look at the moon.
You ever look at the moon?
I like to look at the moon.
I have a telescope to look at the moon.
I can see the craters in the moon.
I can see Mars.
I was sending, you know, Rover to Mars and, you know, it's driving around there, sending back pictures, you know, to the Earth and we're learning about Mars.
It's pretty cool.
I have no doubt one day we'll probably send some brave soul to Mars.
Hopefully they get there successfully and get home.
But when they first start out these adventures, there's no guarantee you're going to get home.
No, my understanding is the first page of the waiver that people had to sign to take this voyage on Titan to go down to see the Titanic had a recognition and acknowledgement that death could be possible three times just on page one.
And that was a risk that people were willing to take.
How about these crazy people?
My buddy Neil Borts used to like to go hot air ballooning.
I'm like, what the hell would you want to go hot air ballooning for?
I can't think of a more dull and boring thing than being stuck in a basket.
No, it could be cool.
A hot air balloon is cool.
A submarine thing scares the crap out of me.
I'm very claustrophobic.
So it's a narrow tight space.
I have friends of mine that, and my son did this recently.
They go diving for lobsters.
I'm like, I want really?
Yes.
Yeah, it loves that stuff.
What happens when the lobster gets you?
Well, no, you got to get them and you got to catch them and get those rubber bands on as quickly as you possibly can.
Oh, my gosh.
You know, I just, you think of the Wright brothers, you think of the air travel that has now been the natural evolution of those first flights.
Well, that first flight was probably pretty scary for them.
And there's no guarantee that they were going to make it, was there?
But, you know, look at the development of air travel just in our lifetime and beyond.
I think the thing that freaked me out a little bit about this is we, you know, there's been so much news, an abundance of news.
But in the last week, we've been reading about this.
And it basically said because of how low it was, you know, and he mentioned it was two miles below, you know, seafloor level, they did not have any GPS.
So they basically get text messages from the vessel that's above that tells them where to go.
And then they used a game controller.
And the game controller is like 30 bucks on Amazon.
So I'm like... I'm sure there are going to be critics saying, well, why would there not more...
I don't know.
There's always somebody, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.
Okay, they knew the risk.
They signed the waiver.
They knew the risk.
They wanted to do it.
And I'm not going to sit here and judge her.
It doesn't sound like it was the first time.
They've done it successfully before.
Now, look, I'll tell you what one individual, a former Titanic sub-passenger or Titan sub-passenger called the trip a suicide mission.
This is a German adventurer explored the Titanic wreckage on the same submersible that appeared, that disappeared.
He called his voyage a suicide mission.
He said, quote, I was incredibly lucky back then.
Guy's 60 years old, telling a German news outlet about his hair-raising aquatic adventure.
He undertook that perilous underwater odyssey.
That was in August of 2021, diving down over 1,200 meters, I'm sorry, 12,000 meters to the famous wreck of the Titanic.
He said, quote, it was a suicide mission back then.
And he recalled his own journey into the abyss.
The first submarine didn't work.
Then a dive at 1,600 meters had to be abandoned.
He explained they ended up launching five hours late because of electrical issues, which he suspects is to blame for the Titan crew's current predicament.
And not only right before the voyage, but the bracket of the stabilization tube, which balances the sub, tore and had to be reattached with zip ties.
I'm like, okay, that does not instill confidence.
They turned off everything to conserve energy to get to the point they were going to.
So that's also a little bit nerve-wracking.
He said you need strong nerves.
You can't be claustrophobic.
And you have to be able to sit cross-legged for 10 hours.
So, but I mean, they knew all that going in.
And I, you know, I give a lot of credit to the people that take brave adventures in their lives.
Would you rather go into space or go under the water?
How about neither?
Neither or nor.
I pass on both.
I have no desire.
I have no space over this.
I probably would take space over that too because I'd feel less claustrophobic.
It's amazing.
I mean, we've mapped out millions of miles of the universe, but we don't know what the hell's down there in the ocean.
We can't get down there.
You know, this to me, you know, speaks to God's majesty.
I mean, you know, when you think of all of the creatures that live in the sea, for those of you that have ever been deep sea fishing and caught any type of big fish, you know, think of it this way.
You know, my obsession with the show Deadliest Catch, and they go crabbing and lightening life below zero.
I love these people that live off the grid.
They're out of their minds.
I mean, would I ever do it?
No, I don't want to be cold.
It's too cold up there.
But, you know, people take these risks, you know, on a daily basis.
And I give everybody a lot of credit for their courage, their bravery, their, you know, their individual, rugged natures that allow them to do these things.
Living off the grid is hard.
You know, you go in the Bering Sea in the middle of winter and you're out there crabbing.
Those guys die.
You know, on that show, you know, how many people did they lose in the course of like a three-year period?
Related in some cases to how difficult and dangerous that work is.
You know, those waves, you're getting 60-foot swells sometimes out there, and it's not like you're going to turn around and go, oh, we're going home now.
That's not how it works.
Storm coming in.
You have no choice.
You've got your lobster pots out there, your crab pots out there.
You've got to bring them in.
You got to haul them in.
And there's a risk you might come back with nothing.
And they do that every single year, year in and year out.
And Mike Rowe, Deadliest Job, does a great job narrating that show.
That's the one show I would love to host.
That is the one show I would love to host.
And, you know, for example, Stephen A. Smith, did you hear he wants to take over for Pat Sajak on Wheel of Fortune?
I thought that was a good time.
I did not hear that.
No, he wants to be Jimmy Kimmel.
He wants to take over for Pat Sajak.
He would break everybody's stones when they got it wrong.
I can't even imagine him doing that for a second.
I don't know.
It might bring a new edge.
You know who is the best host ever of Family Feud?
And I can watch episode after episode on the Game Show channel?
Steve Harvey.
I'm your man, Steve Harvey.
Do you like him better than Dawson?
Yes.
Dawson was nothing but like a perv kissing every woman's hand and igh.
It was the 70s and 80s.
Oh, okay.
I'm sorry.
I got to put it in the context of the 70s and 80s.
I remember him from Hogan's Heroes.
That's how far back that goes.
But no, the best one, Steve Harvey.
He is funny, and he could just give a look.
Somebody gives the most bizarre answer on Family Feud, and he will just look at him and just say, basically say, you're crazy.
Anyway, our prayers are with these families.
And, you know, for the people that want to be critics of this, and I'm sure there's no shortage of them.
I'm not going to pay attention to any of them because I don't really care what they have to say.
You know what?
What courage do you show in your life every day?
I like people that are courageous.
I like people that are innovators.
I like people that are willing to take risks in life.
This was a calculated risk.
You know, certainly the success, the prior success would lend itself to the argument that they could do it again.
And I'm sure they're going to have to revisit all of this by the end of this.
All right, we got a lot coming up political-wise today.
Jim Jordan of the House Judiciary Committee will join us.
We got a lot to dig into on a couple of fronts.
The FBI politicized, weaponized, the DOJ politicized, weaponized.
The Hunter Biden slap on the wrist, the testimony of John Durham yesterday.
That was pretty amazing.
Earlier today in the House Ways and Means Committee, and we'll check in with their chairman, Jason Smith, the Missouri, later on in the program.
We learned a lot about the testimony of whistleblowers, credible whistleblowers, alleging massive misconduct and government abuse, resulting in the preferential treatment again for Hunter Biden.
He talked about two specific IRS whistleblowers bringing forth evidence that the federal government is not treating all taxpayers equally and enforcing the laws and tax laws equally.
The whistleblowers were working on an investigation into Hunter Biden that they opened in November of 2008 as an offshoot of a separate corporate investigation by the IRS.
And he put emphasis on this.
This was an investigation in the ordinary course of work at the IRS.
You know, just like the ordinary course of work annually is Pull Hannity's file.
I understand.
That's part of their job.
But anyway, it was not ordered by any individual, any chairman, any entity.
And the whistleblowers point out that the Biden Department of Justice has been overstepping and protecting Hunter Biden and even went as far as to purposefully delay some of the statute of limitations on previous years taxes that went unpaid that are even mentioned in Hunter Biden's laptop that the FBI had since December of 2019.
They specifically mentioned $400,000 of unpaid taxes connected to Burisma.
But anyway, they described this as a clear-cut tax liability case.
And the testimony shows that the U.S. Attorney of Delaware tried to bring charges in the District of Columbia was denied.
That was in March of 2022.
And then Weiss sought special counsel status.
That was denied.
And the main findings of these two whistleblowers in their testimony today, and we'll hear from him later in the program, is one, the federal government is not treating taxpayers equally when they enforce tax laws.
That should not surprise you.
Hunter Biden, you know, I had last night on TV, Hunter Biden was not treated the same way other Americans were treated.
Wesley Snipes, three misdemeanor tax charges.
He got sentenced to three years in jail.
I had Bradford Cohen on last night.
He was the attorney for rapper Kodak Black.
And he talked about how his client lied on a gun application form.
He wasn't offered the same deal as Hunter, no jail, and two years.
They'll expunge it from his record.
That wasn't offered.
He was sentenced to 46 months in prison because of the exact same charge.
You know, if you look at it, the global income, what they've been able to discover, but anyway, the one thing is that the federal government is not enforcing or treating taxpayers equally when enforcing the laws.
The whistleblowers point out that the Biden Department of Justice is intervening and overstepping when it comes to the investigation into a Hunter Biden, that the whistleblowers have faced almost immediate retaliation.
I thought Democrats love whistleblowers.
Apparently, they only like whistleblowers that are going after Donald Trump.
They also discovered global income streams to Hunter Biden and his associates from Ukraine, Romania, and China.
In this case, those three countries totaling $17.3 million from 2014 to 2019, Hunter Biden himself received $8.3 million.
Well, what did he do with the money considering he now got a deal with the mother of his four-year-old daughter that he refuses to recognize to reduce his monthly payments by 75% and deny his own daughter the use of his last name?
You know, one day that four-year-old little girl is going to realize, oh, my granddad was the president of the United States and he wanted nothing to do with me.
And the first lady wanted nothing to do with me.
I wonder how that kid's going to feel when she realizes that.
When they had the Christmas stockings put up at the White House, they had every grandchild and the family dog, but not her name.
Pretty sick.
All right, when we come back, the dual system of justice, unequal application of our laws, no equal justice under the law.
We'll check in with the Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan later on, the two IRS whistleblowers and their testimony before the House Ways and Means Committee.
The chairman of that committee, Jason Smith of Missouri, will join us.
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