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Dec. 1, 2023 - Sean Hannity Show
40:08
Newt Gingrich - November 30th, Hour 2
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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.
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All right, we are in Alpharetta, Georgia.
Well, not strange territory to our next guest, former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich, is with us.
Boy, I remember the Cop Galleria.
The night was election night, 1994.
I was your MC.
You had, that night, you brought Republicans out of the wilderness for the first time in 40 years.
Republicans got a majority of the House of Representatives, and you became Speaker, and that became a part of my life's history, and I am forever grateful.
And then you ended up balancing the budget four years in a row, and it's not been balanced since, and it wasn't balanced for a long time before, and I don't see any hope that it's going to be balanced anytime soon.
Well, I'm a little more optimistic.
I think that we actually have a pretty good budget committee chairman, and I think that they are working very hard.
They've actually produced a budget which would be in balance in 10 years.
Now they got to one carry the country and pick up a heck of a lot of seats next year.
But if they did that, you know, Jody Arrington, as chairman, has proven that you could balance the budget if you had the willpower.
And the question will be whether we had a president and a house and a senate that are willing to do it.
And I think getting spending under control, balancing the budget, getting back to 3.5% or 4% economic growth, and dramatically overhauling the federal government, I think that we just saw in Argentina, that's a pretty winning package when you're dealing with people who are very unhappy and who see that their money is being spent in crazy ways and that they're getting poorer while their government gets richer.
Let me ask you about the Republican majority.
It's very slim.
A lot of reports that Kevin McCarthy and one other congressman are thinking about resigning before the end of the year or maybe early into next year, then the whole George Santos fiasco.
To me, that is an unmitigated disaster on top of the fact that Republicans can't even unite on some of the most basic items, or as you call them, the 90-10, 80-20 issues that the low-hanging fruit that everybody should agree on if they're a Republican.
Yeah, I think this is the new speaker, Mike Johnson, has an enormous challenge.
And it's one that ultimately, as brilliant as he is and as much as I admire Kevin McCarthy, he couldn't find a way to both keep his entire conference.
You know, he got 96% of the House Republican conference voted to keep him.
But the 4% who sided with the Democrats were the margin of defeating him.
And in that kind of environment, I think Mike Johnson's going to find pretty rapidly.
He's going to have similar problems because there's a block of Republicans who get up every morning knowing they're voting no.
They just don't know what they're voting on.
And remind me of Kennedy.
You used to wake up and Teddy's first comment was, we need more money.
And then he'd say, now, what's the issue?
Well, I mean, you have a wealth of experience.
That's pretty much how it works.
All right.
With that said, because, look, you have various factions within the Republican Party, but they are the majority.
It's frustrating to me as a conservative that Republicans don't stand on principle.
You know, I would think that demanding a border bill alone would not be that heavy a lift for them and just not be willing to go along with any other spending until they do that.
Or, for example, Chuck Schumer gave, you know, a passionate speech about anti-Semitism yesterday, a little late for my liking.
He could have done this when Congresswoman Talib was talking about wiping Israel off the map from the river to the sea, but she didn't get kicked out of Congress.
And the reality is, Chuck, I'm sorry, Schumer this week had an opportunity to have a standalone Israel funding bill, and he chose not to support it.
And he got all the Democrats not to support it because he wants the big omnibus bills.
He wants Ukraine tied to it.
He wants Taiwan tied to it.
Maybe some border security money just to get the House to go along.
Why can't they just have every bill be a standalone bill and work that way?
Well, you could, but you probably couldn't get anything through at that point.
You know, what they're trying to do is figure out, are there enough things that if I each one brings, let's say, 70 or 100 votes, so if I can get three or four things that each brings 70 or 100 votes, can I get to a majority?
I think that the border ought to be a much bigger issue than it is.
I just read a thing this morning about a 94-year-old World War II veteran being kicked out of his nursing home so they could turn it over to Biden's illegal immigrants.
And I've decided every time I use the term illegal immigrant, I'm going to put Biden's name in front of it because none of this is an accident.
This is a deliberate policy by Biden and the Democrats to drown the country and people who are here illegally.
And they know it, and they're doing it willfully and deliberately.
And I think that we need to make them accept the consequence of their behavior.
Well, I mean, I tend to agree with you on every front.
How do you do it?
Well, I think, first of all, you've got to get agreement on what you're least willing to talk about.
Because if you get 200-plus Republicans in the House and 48 Republicans in the Senate, and they have the same language, they can drive things.
I mean, Reagan managed long before Rush Limbaugh became famous, long before there was a Fox News.
Reagan understood that just sheer repetition, you could get through despite all the efforts of the news media.
And so I think that's a fascinating way to approach this.
And I think that's why, for example, I've talked so much about big government socialism, because that's what they are, and it's very unpopular.
And again, to cite, recently we've had elections in Argentina, in Holland, in Finland, in Hungary, in Italy, in Greece, in South Korea.
And again and again, the people who are second tired of big government and second tire to left-wing values have been winning astonishing victories.
And I think that Republicans should focus, first of all, on what do we have to do next year to make sure we win the biggest possible victory at every level?
House, Senate, President, governors, what have you.
And how do we draw the issues so clearly and focus on?
I mean, I think that Congress ought to go to New York and hold some field hearings with the senior citizens who are being kicked out of their homes in order to take care of illegal immigrants, just to give you an example.
Second, I think, and if you want any single argument for why it's good to have a Republican House, look at the work they're doing to bring to the surface just how corrupt and how sick the Biden family is.
And I think that none of that would be happening if the Democrats were in charge.
So these are serious things.
When somebody who's as serious and careful as Andy McCarthy, who used to be a prosecuting federal attorney and prosecuted the terrorists who had the first World Trade Center bombing in 1993, when McCarthy writes a piece that starts with, it's now clear that we have the equivalent of a Chinese communist agent sitting in the Oval Office, that's pretty devastating.
There's a whole zone here, not just of corruption, but of basically selling out America and doing things for foreign dictatorships and foreign oligarchs that clearly violate any commitment to improving America.
And I think that's going to be part of it.
But Biden also faces just reality.
I mean, when you have 800 cars carjacked in Washington, D.C. by Thanksgiving, there's something profoundly wrong.
When you learn that the estimate is that there have been $4.2 billion stolen from stores in New York City, and you just go case by case and realize the Biden policies don't work.
The left doesn't work.
And you feel it in your pocketbook.
You feel it in the quality of life in your neighborhood.
And you're going to have this great debate tonight, which Clista and I are both really looking forward to.
And I think it's a very, very innovative idea.
And it's really a choice of two profoundly different governing philosophies.
And I was fascinated that Governor Newsom, in order to welcome the Chinese dictator, Xi Jinping, to San Francisco, created a totally phony Potemkin village, cleaned up the city just long enough for Xi Jinping to visit, and then promptly let it collapse again.
And I just thought, I mean, what does it tell you when the policies are so bad that they have to go about creating a phony appearance in order to have a Chinese dictator show up?
Yeah.
All right, quick break, right back.
More with Speaker Newt Kingrich on the other side.
Then we'll get to your calls.
We continue from Alpharetta, Georgia.
Tonight's big debate on Hannity, 9 Eastern, Seth DVR, 9:01 tonight is Gavin Newsom versus Ron DeSantis.
Should be fun.
You don't want to miss it.
All right, we continue now.
We're in Alpharetta, Georgia, for tonight's big debate with Governor Ron DeSantis versus Governor Gavin Newsome.
That's 9 Eastern tonight on Fox, but we continue with Speaker of the House, Newt Gingrich, former Speaker.
By the way, I have an old friend of yours in studio here with us.
You might remember when I was here from 92 to 96 doing my show, my radio show, on the news monster, a guy by the name of Eric Slugo Sudell.
You remember Slugo?
Of course.
That's awesome.
Newt, how are you?
It must be like Old Home Week.
Well, he didn't pay me very much when I was here, just for the record.
I go back to when you were still a college professor, Newt, when I first met you.
Wow.
At Kennesaw State College?
No, no, no.
He was at West Georgia.
You were at West Georgia.
That's right.
Okay, sorry.
And you may remember I came in one time to substitute for Neil Bort, and I learned the hard way that doing three hours of talk radio is real work.
Oh, yeah.
Well, don't give away the secret that you actually have to work at this show.
I love people that say, well, you only work three hours a day on the radio.
I'm like, okay, for every hour you're on, there's like three hours of preparation.
I thought I could just do it.
And I went in there, and by about the second hour, I was dying.
Well, you were not.
Come on.
You have filled in for me before.
Look, the things that interested me had no interest to anybody else.
And I didn't prepare correctly.
I didn't understand the nature of a Neil Borts audience.
And, you know, ever since, I've had enormous respect for people like you and Rush.
Because, you know, both of you understand you have to entertain in order to educate.
And so you've got to have a show that's lively and informative and that people want to listen to because they have many things they can do with their lives.
And I think Eric would agree totally that there are a handful of people who get it so well, they become sort of artists of what they're doing.
Now, I have to also confess, back when they weren't paying you very much, you weren't quite up to the office level yet.
But the first time I interviewed Newt was in a holiday inn in Decatur, Alabama, when I was doing radio in Huntsville from 90 to 92.
Right.
Funny story about Neil Bortz.
Neil Bortz made me a much better host.
I'm driving in one morning and I tune in to our competitor station, and it was 6:15 in the morning.
I'm driving to work.
And then on comes Neil Bortz at 6:15.
Every morning he would be there at 6:15.
He told his audience every topic that he would be discussing that day, meaning he had read every newspaper already.
That means he had been there for a couple of hours.
And I'm like, I'm still driving to work.
And from that day forward, I got my ass to work very early.
And I would listen to him at 6:15 every morning.
And then he would give away his whole show.
And if he was going to be talking, and he didn't have many guests, so if he had a really good topic and there was a great guest I could get and book, I'd rather have the guest rather than him just going off on stuff.
The other thing is, so one day he announces he has Robert Shapiro.
This is right after the O.J. Simpson trial.
That's going to be on his show at 10 p.m.
Our shows start at 9.
Probably 10 a.m.
I'm sorry, at 10 a.m.
And so anyway, I called my producer, Eric Stinger.
How come we didn't get Rob Shapiro?
What's going on?
He goes, no, I think he's going to be on an FM station that we had a relationship with.
We actually did an April Fool's Switch joke one year, which turned out to be 99X.
Yeah, 99X.
He calls over there and says, Is there any chance that Mr. Shapiro would like to do an interview with Sean Hannity at 9 a.m.?
She goes, Sure.
We're free, right?
Okay, they come over.
I get them first.
And then at the end of the hour, I say, Mr. Shapiro, this is going so well.
Would you mind staying a little bit longer, maybe into the next hour?
He stays till about 10:45, then heads over to Neil's show.
Neil meets him in the parking lot.
Nealey has a fistfight with the guy.
I mean, those are the old school radio wars that used to take place, but he made me a better host because I knew how good he was.
I know how smart he was.
And then we feed him stories on the topics that we knew that his audience was bored stiff with.
And every day we tried to like feed him stories that would send him off on the typical tangent, which worked often.
That's hysterical.
Well, I have to tell you, Neil, who, as you know, surprised me by the way, we're best friends.
I love him.
Wow.
He now has me coming to do some breakfast group in early 2004.
And the only reason I'm doing it is Neil.
I mean, he is such a great friend.
We've known each other so long.
But, you know, he and Rush were very similar in that neither one actually wanted to have guests.
Now, I think in Neil's case, it's because he really liked listening to himself.
And in Russia, he knew that his audience didn't want to listen to anybody else.
They wanted to listen to Rush.
And I remember one time I asked you a question because you'd begun opening the evening TV with a monologue.
And you said, well, the challenge is that's actually the highest rated part of the show because people are curious about what you think.
And then you let us lesser mortals come on and throw out.
Oh, okay.
Former Speaker of the House, Lesser Mortals.
Slugger, you get the last word.
Hi, look, Newt, it's good to talk to you.
I haven't seen you for a while, but I remember when during a World Braves World Series game, and I had known you for many years, and my brother was in town who was a DC lawyer, and he wanted to meet you, although he came from an opposite end of the political spectrum.
But he was very nice.
I was really terrified about introducing you, but he was very, very courteous.
Anyway, Mr. Speaker, we love having you.
Thank you so much.
We'll talk a little bit more with Slugo as the program goes on.
He's going to tell you lies about me and my past, but I'm just giving you a preview of coming attractions.
800-941 Shawmore in Alpharetta, Georgia.
Tonight's big debate: Governor Ron DeSantis versus Governor Gavin Newsom.
Hey there, I'm Mary Catherine Hammond and I'm Carol Markowitz.
We've been in political media for a long time.
Long enough to know that it's gotten, well, a little insane.
That's why we started Normally, a podcast for people who are over the hysteria and just want clarity.
We talk about the issues that actually matter to the country without panic, without yelling, and with a healthy dose of humor.
We don't take ourselves too seriously, but we do take the truth seriously.
So if you're into common sense, sanity, and some occasional 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.
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.
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.
When I told people I was making a podcast about Benghazi, nine times out of ten, they called me a masochist, rolled their eyes, or just asked, why?
Benghazi, the truth became a web of lies.
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.
Get your dose of independence and liberty every weekday right here on the Jean Hannity Show.
Hi, 25 to the top of the hour.
Thank you for being with us.
800-941-Sean, our number.
You want to be a part of the program?
We are in Alpharetta, Georgia today.
Tonight's big debate, state versus state, red versus blue.
Governor Ron DeSantis of Florida versus Governor Gavin Newsom.
Man, I will tell you, the amount of interest in this.
Did you see the Drudger Vortenay?
I mean, the real debate.
Hannity Show.
What does it say?
Hannity Show something.
I got to pull it up here.
It was pretty funny.
Here it is.
Hannity's Show in the Spotlight.
I don't know if that's good or bad.
It says, tonight, the real debate, left and right, coast square off.
I'm glad there's a lot of interest in it.
And as I've been telling many of you, even some of you that are critical, why are you giving Gavin Newsome any airtime?
I'm like, you better pay attention to this guy.
And, you know, he acts like what are the odds that Joe Biden might not be on the ticket a year from now?
Is that a real possibility?
Because I think the answer is yes.
If I am right, and that's a real possibility, you better know who's behind him.
Now, we know about Kamala Harris.
She's more of a known entity nationwide.
People know about Gavin Newsom, but they don't really know his record.
The people of California do.
And I think to just highlight these diametrically opposed political views and philosophies and look at the results and or failures of them or the justification for why things are the way they are is going to be very interesting.
And anyway, so that's happening nine Eastern.
It goes till 10.30.
Then we'll do a half-hour analysis of the debate.
We'll put up on Hannity.com if you want to vote who won the debate.
We'll put that up there.
Or if you want to grade the moderator and give me an A-plus, I'd take that too, but that's not part of the equation.
Anyway, first I want to remind you, Mike Lindell, he's always looking for new ways to solve everyday problems.
For example, you go into a store, you need new towels, you feel them.
They feel soft.
You think they're going to be absorbent.
You take them home.
And by the way, that first shower, that first bath, if you like to take baths, I'm not a bath person.
Guess what?
It's absorbent and it's soft.
Anyway, then you do it the third or fourth time and that softness kind of disappears.
The absorbency, not quite what it used to be.
Well, MyPillows, they have now announced two brand new lines of My Towels for you to try.
And what makes these towels great is they're now made with what's called 100% long staple, sharper cotton.
Now, it's comb, ringspun cotton.
That's what makes the towels absorbent and softer than ever.
Right now, you can get a six-piece set, 50% off at $29.98.
Go to mypillow.com, the Sean Hannity Square.
If you'd like their designer premium line, well, that's 20 bucks more, but it's also 50% off.
Just go to mypillow.com, Sean Hannity Square.
They have other deep discounts on other great MyPillow products.
Or you can call 800-919-6090 and just mention my name, Hannity.
Anyway, it's great to be back.
I'm now starting my 28th year at the Fox News channel.
And I promise you, if you would have looked at any of the early shows of then Hannity and Combs and think that I'd still be there, I promise you, you'd be like wondering, how did they put this guy on TV?
And they were right in what they said.
The first review of Hannity and Combs said, Alan Combs looks funereal, and Sean Hannity has a bad haircut and has no business being on television.
And I have a face for radio.
He didn't say that part, though.
Now, I have since done many interviews.
Vern Gay of Newsday wrote it, and I've done many interviews.
And every time we do an interview, I'm like, we bring it up and we kind of laugh about it.
Now I've become the longest running primetime cable host in the history of cable news.
I never thought that would ever happen.
All I knew in my life and in my career is I grew up listening to radio.
I was fascinated with radio.
My parents were furious at my radio listening because I would listen to talk shows, you know, late into the night in New York.
And guys like Barry Farber, who became a dear friend of mine, and Barry Gray, and all these late-night hosts.
And then it evolved.
Then, you know, the acerbic Bob Grant, hey, get off my phone, you scumbag, stuff like that.
And I had a little of that style in me, I guess, when I started.
Did you ever?
All right, we'll get to that in a second.
Calm down.
I'm about to introduce you.
But all I knew, that light went on, and that's what I wanted to do.
And rightly, I was fired at a university station, but frankly, everyone on that station should have been fired because they were all left-wing nuts.
But once they took the mic away from me, that's all I wanted to do.
My life changed.
I have no idea why.
Then you called me from Atlanta and offered me an opportunity to audition for two days there.
Right.
An on-air audition.
Okay, so I did two days' audition.
What happened behind the scenes after that audition?
Well, let me, you know, we go back.
I was telling Linda, Blair, and James, we go back 31 years now.
Right.
So you were in a talk radio bassinet at the time.
Thanks a lot.
Looks like you just slipped out of your own bassinet there.
Slugo's chair nearly went right to the ground.
So we really had to work with you.
And you came on very strong.
You had the edge of a New Yorker.
Well, I had a much thicker New York accent at the time.
I sounded like Linda.
See, I don't remember that so much as how abrupt you could be with callers and even with guests.
And I think, and Nancy Zintac, our executive producer and I used to tell you, you're in the deep south, mellow out a little.
You didn't really tell me until.
It was an until moment.
I don't remember if you gave me how many-year contract it was originally.
I would think it was a for life, wasn't it?
No, it was not for life, not even close to for life.
And you didn't pay me very much just for the record.
Well, we paid you based on the cost of living here, which is far less than New York.
It's not that less.
But actually, in retrospect, I would never have had the opportunities I had not being in Atlanta.
Because then I started doing TV at Fake News CNN, and they were calling me like every other day.
Well, and you also did a couple of talk shows and Sally Jesse.
Yep, and you did Donahue once.
We did Donnie.
Neil Bortz was on that.
Yeah, and you also went up on weekends and did CNBC.
That's where Roger Ailes learned about you.
That's correct.
So all that happened.
So anyway, long story short, and he's going to distort the story, but I'll let you give your version of it.
One day you call me in your office and you confronted me over my confrontational style on the air.
And I will tell you, if you've ever watched Howard Stern's movie Private Parts, you know, it's like when you start on radio, you sound like an idiot.
You know, and now it chucked it today's weather, hazy, hot, humid, cancel late afternoon, thunderstorms.
Right now, it's 78 degrees, slight drizzle on WWW, WANBC.
You know, that's all real.
That's how you start out.
I think you become your best host, or the way to become the best host you can be is when you are truly yourself.
There is no doubt that New York, rough and tumble, get off my phone, you creep, got into my bloodstream.
And I thought that was how to do a talk show.
It's not my natural style.
It definitely is Levin's natural style.
For example, get off my phone, you big dope, right?
But it's not mine.
And so you bring me into your office, and I remember this.
Well, Nancy was in the meeting, and I remember you're kind of, in a very nice way, you didn't yell, you didn't scream, you just said, you got to calm down.
Callers are, I'm telling you, we're getting complaints about how, not what you say, they agree with you, but how you're saying it.
Well, that's exactly right.
I knew from the time I heard your tapes before we ever brought you into Atlanta for the on-air audition, said this is the guy.
He's young, he's inexperienced, but he's where we need him to be politically.
Okay, so I played the, Nancy, you know, is sort of to the left of the left, but she, I have to give her credit, she was a terrific producer.
She understood the talk talent, and she helped produce to your strengths.
Did it with Neil, too, when he was there.
But all we need to knew, you had to just scroll.
And you were young.
I thought you'd bring a younger audience.
You know, yeah, you were young at one time, Sean.
By the way, we did.
Yeah.
I remember books, Men 2554 with 12 and a half shares.
But don't forget we had the Braves, too.
Yeah, when you lost the Braves, I said goodbye.
Yeah.
Oh, you did stay for the Olympics.
That was very kind of you.
You do know what the AJC said in their year-end edition in 1996, right?
I remember you remember these things better than I do.
Well, I actually have the article saved.
It said, 1996 was a great year.
The Olympics came and Sean Hannity left, which is funny.
But that meeting, I remember what I said to you.
I said, you've lost confidence in me.
That's what I said to you.
And what did I say?
You were very nice.
Honestly, you were a great mentor.
You were.
What you didn't want to do, and then I figured out what had happened, that a big research project had been conducted on the station on me, and you would not share the information with me, but you wanted to filter the information to me.
All correct, right?
Critical Mass Media did it?
Yeah, we did.
Joel.
Yeah, we really needed to proctor that to you and other talent.
Okay, and there are a lot of talent that really can't handle research.
I'm not one of them.
So one night I was there late, just happened to see an open office door.
That was locked.
Not necessarily.
Oh, yes.
I don't recall that part.
That was our niece door.
I know that was locked.
And I found that perceptual.
Yeah, it just jumped into your hand.
It did.
And I read the slugo.
I read the whole thing.
I know you did.
And the verbatims are what got to you.
The verbatims were unsolicited comments about varying hosts.
And the audience was shouting at me to calm the hell down.
They liked my opinions.
They did not like my style.
This is everything we were telling you too.
But I had to read it myself to get it.
Yeah.
I never lost confidence in you.
I knew what you could do.
And again, for our audience, the target we were hitting, you were perfect for that.
And it was just a matter to grow into that role in a more be yourself, as you said.
How long can you not be yourself?
How long can you be that dishonest?
Eventually, the real person has to come out if it's radio.
Radio is a warmth medium.
You can't live a lie like that, especially when, and this is a very intimate medium.
Totally agree.
So I took it seriously.
And by the way, there were probably about 20 years in my career, and I've told, I never really got into great detail.
I paid for research on myself.
I know.
And I would read it just the way I read the research because that helped me improve more than anything.
Because what I realized is the audience is never wrong.
One thing I want to go back.
At the time, you had the nervous system of jell-o.
You were so insecure.
And you've told me every day you thought I'd fired you.
Every day after the show, I would go into the control room, steal the tapes, and make it that you could not listen to the show from that day because you were meeting the whole show.
I would have Stanger walk the building and find out where you were and do topics you didn't want me to do.
I hope you've gained some confidence in me.
Well, you know, I thank you.
I thank Bill Donovan.
I thank Roger.
I thank everybody that's had an impact on my career.
And it's been an amazing journey.
Well, nobody works harder than you.
And your work ethic was one of the things we saw right away.
And that was such a strength.
And it's been such a strength for you all along.
Your success to a great extent is due to you.
All right, quick break.
More with my former boss and friend, Eric Slugo-Seidel is with us.
We'll get to your calls later on in the program.
At the top of the hour, Christine Noam will join us.
And don't forget our debate tonight.
Blue State, Red State, Red State, Blue State, the Great State Debate.
It's happening in Alpharetta, Georgia, 9 Eastern.
Governor Ronda Santis versus Governor Gavin Newsom.
I, your host, will be your moderator.
We're in Alvaretta, Georgia, for the big Blue State, Red State debate happening tonight.
And Eric Slugo-Seidel is with us.
He is my former boss when I was here locally in Atlanta.
You know, that story I told about Neil Borch is true.
And you know, I've told you that story before.
And I was shocked that he was at work and I was still driving to work and I wasn't on for another two and a half hours and that he had already read everything.
And I'm like, I'll never survive.
Then I'm taking my first vacation like a year later.
I'm in my car.
Now, Neil switched stations.
The reason I got hired by you is because he went to a competing station.
The one I'm on now, the good station, WSB.
The one we had doesn't exist here anymore.
That's true.
So Neil's on the air.
I'm listening to him as I'm going on vacation.
And he's like, Sean Hannity, I know you're listening.
How the hell do you know I'm listening?
He goes, Sean, your phone's about to ring.
It's going to be Sluggo.
Sluggo's going to say, come on back because of what I'm about to announce.
Starting Monday morning, I'm going back to my old time slot.
He was supposed to compete against Rush.
Didn't work out well.
No, he thought he could beat Rush and he couldn't.
Okay.
So he's going back.
And then he's going to start a show 15 minutes before me.
I get to the airport.
I'm like, I'm coming back.
You would not let me come back.
That's right.
And I had no power to fight you on that.
And it was the worst vacation I've ever had in my life.
Well, I'm sorry about that.
I thought you needed the break.
And I think you filled in for me in the meantime.
And the ratings were incredible.
They went high.
I filled a lot of blank space.
Oh, man.
But you know, Newt said something.
I could never do this full-time.
You could show.
It is so the amount of work that goes into this.
You did ask the program director all the time.
Yeah, it was asked the manager.
Yeah.
Ask the manager.
Sorry.
And there were times when I filled in when I would do topics, too.
But for the moment, I guess this is why I went into management.
Why?
I did news.
I came up through news, not through talk.
So you know that.
But you know what's odd for me is I can't even believe that I don't know what my life would be like if I didn't have this three-hour outlet every day.
You guys talk about how hard it is.
I can't think about life without it.
Isn't that weird?
No, not at all.
Not at all.
It's what hits you.
It's in your heart.
Sluggo, I'm grateful for you.
And we've been friends ever since.
Bill Dutterman, grateful for him.
Everybody that's helped me in TV and radio.
My current partners, I mean, they're amazing.
You know, everyone from Julie to Pop Pittman, I have the best radio team.
They're half here.
Sweet baby James is here.
Linda Blair are here.
And the same with my TV style, great people.
You're an easy guy to like, by the way.
People don't like to like.
Oh, they like me because I give them bonuses and I pay for lunch and I pay for dinner.
You're an easy guy to like and people should get to know, I hope, can get to know you on a different level because you are a terrific human being.
You're a great man, Slugo.
Thank you for helping me.
You definitely helped me.
I take a lot of pride.
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