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May 22, 2024 - Sean Hannity Show
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Rep. Matt Gaetz - May 21st, Hour 3
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All right, news roundup information overload our toll free telephone numbers 800 941 Sean, if you want to be a part of the program.
So Matt Gates had been in the courtroom with President Trump and we had him on and we got his take on on all that's been going on in the courtroom.
And now we see the judge desperately trying uh to move the case uh in Alvin Bragg's direction because it's fallen apart so disastrously.
Uh he took to the floor of the House of Representatives and uh talked about the election interference that is going on in this courtroom, and here's what he said.
I rise to alert this House of election interference that is going on in a Manhattan courtroom right now, and we ought to assert our equities to ensure that federal elections aren't subject to this type of devious behavior.
This entire case in New York is based on Michael Cohen.
He's one of the few people walking around the planet Earth today who's lied to all three branches of government.
He lied to the investigators, he lied to his own sentencing judge, he lied to this very Congress.
But as if that wasn't enough.
Michael Cohen lied to this very jury Tuesday.
There's a reason he was held to the end of this case.
They were hoping to corroborate him.
They couldn't.
It has failed, and it should be dismissed.
And otherwise the Congress should certainly assert our equities to stop election interference.
Thank you, Madam Speaker.
I yield back.
Anyway, Congressman Matt Gates, he's with the panhandle out of Florida.
Uh, sir, welcome back to the program.
How are you?
Uh, thanks so much for having me, Sean.
And remember, this is a federal election case, but the federal prosecutors at the Southern District of New York who looked at it, they said it wasn't worthy of a charge.
And then the Federal Election Commission, who also looked at this, did not believe that any crime had been committed, that any prosecution was necessary.
So this is a novel legal theory where a local DA is trying to bring this case, and it really fell apart before our very eyes when Michael Cohen there was exposed, not just being for a liar of yesteryear in in times past,
but even this in this trial before this jury lying about his communications and the substance of those communications as as part of all this nonsense that they've tried to criminalize because they want to keep Trump off the campaign trail.
So it's quite something, and you know, the I don't know that your listeners can really appreciate how dank and dreary this place is.
You think about New York being this grandiose place with all the atmospherics of the big apple.
The reality is I think this courtroom got frozen in time about 50 years ago and hasn't changed.
And uh it it's incredibly close proximity, and you get to see the smirk on this judge's face.
He believed that this prosecution was his entry ticket into high society of New York, that he would be celebrated forever as the judge who got to put away Donald Trump, and he's desperately trying to preserve that despite all of the evidence cutting against the principal witness for the prosecution, Michael Cohen, a liar proven over and over again.
What did you make of the judge's meltdown yesterday as it relates to Costello?
You he's trying to stir me down.
I mean, I I mean, if it wasn't so ridiculous, it's laughable.
And then, of course, Bradley Smith, former FEC chair, uh, who I interviewed, I've I played it early in the program and said there's no crime committed here at all.
Uh, and of course, try preventing the jury from from hearing from him and limiting what they could hear from Bob Costello that would impeach everything Cohn said.
And and now here we are, we'll have closing arguments.
I assume that in closing arguments, they'll probably try and limit what the defense has to say there and and yet give free license to the prosecution.
I mean, did we really need to hear Stormy Daniels talks to dead people or the salacious details that are immaterial, irrelevant to the case uh that he allowed to drone on and on and on.
Did we really you know, even as that has nothing to do with the case?
Uh but David Pecker talking about catch and kill operations that he does for so many people.
Uh again, irrelevant, immaterial to the case, and the allegation and even the charges, as novel a legal theory as this is, and it just really it does begin to make one wonder, you know, what jury instructions are going to look like.
And And now I think the judge in this case is purposely trying to tip the scale back in favor of the prosecution because they got destroyed, and he knows damn well they got destroyed.
Maybe a lot of things, but you can't be that dumb.
It's an incredibly rare and powerful thing when someone's own lawyer stands up and says that that person has been a liar.
Uh that was what was occurring with Michael Cohen's former lawyer, Bob Costello.
And it seemed that really triggered the judge that that got the judge uh so enraged that he cleared the courtroom and had this kind of bizarre uh uh mature.
By the way, the only other person that I know gets people that pissed off is you.
I I I I guess I mean I've never gotten a judge that me and my uh not talking about I'm not talking about a judge.
I'm just speaking generally.
I'm all right, I'm joking around.
Go ahead.
Yeah, no, while witnesses before Congress, for sure.
I'll I've I'll plead guilty to getting a few of them uh uh hot under the collar, but but here for a judge to be so intemperate is is indicative of someone displeased with the direction of this trial and and how it seems to be going on the presentation of the evidence.
And so I think you're right to be concerned about what these jury instructions look like.
I would expect that a good amount of the summation from Todd Blanch will revisit all of the points he scored during the cross examination of Michael Cohen.
Uh the the uh dishonesty, the thiever stealing from the Trump organization.
This wasn't someone who was just lying to protect Donald Trump.
This was someone at all material times was working for his own benefit, for his own financial benefit to try to move uh into a societal and governmental class that he thought he deserved to be in, and it may have just been an inner intermettler in this whole uh bizarre matter.
So while I thought we were definitely headed at a minimum to a hung jury, maybe maybe an outright acquittal.
I think the judge now is is trying to tip the scales here in favor of the prosecution, and he's doing everything he can possibly do.
You know, the and and I'm listening to people on TV, I really think they're stupid and dumb and don't know what the hell they're talking about.
Uh I know the Trump team rightly has put forward a motion to dismiss that's not going to happen.
I know everybody's talked about well, the right thing to do would be a director verdict.
We know that's not going to happen.
We know that this judge, the Biden donor judge with with conflicts who should have recused himself.
We know he's gone all in now with the prosecution, and he's now gonna double, triple, quadruple down on it.
And and the media mob, they're doing the same.
Let me play a quick cut of, you know, Lawrence O'Donnell.
Lawrence lost his mind.
He's actually trying to downplay Michael Cohn and the fact, the revelation yesterday that he's stealing, you know, tens of thousands of dollars from the Trump organization.
He very effectively got Michael Cohen to say to agree that yes, he stole thirty thousand dollars.
Later, when Cohen was asked about that on redirect uh by the prosecution, it didn't really sound like stealing thirty thousand dollars.
It sounded a lot like Michael Cohen doing the little that he could within that calculation to rebalance uh the bonus he thought he deserved, and it still came out as less than the bonus he thought he deserved and the bonus he'd gotten the year before.
Trying to he Cohn admitted he stole from the organization.
What part of it does somebody at MSDNC not understand?
Well, Lawrence O'Donnell has acknowledged how devastating the cross-examination was of Michael Cohen, and now he's trying to suggest that there was some rehabilitation.
But it's it's not just the volume of lies that will, I think, encompass the testimony of Michael Cohen.
It's also the nature of those lies.
The key distinction that uh that Todd Blanch brilliantly brought out is that Michael Cohen was not just lying because the job required it, or because Donald Trump wanted him to, or it was for Trump's benefit.
Cohen was someone who was just a a uh gratuitous liar for his own benefit.
And when he admitted that it was stealing on cross examination, it showed that the prosecution didn't really lay a sufficient foundation.
You know, in court, you always want to get the bad information out yourself.
You don't want the other side drawing it out of your witnesses.
And in this case, the worst of Michael Cohen was undeniably drawn out by Todd Blanch.
And I think it left the jury wondering whether or not this whole thing was done for retribution because actually Michael Cohen wasn't the inner circle guy that he thought he was once Donald Trump was transitioning out of private life and into the presidency.
And this is a circumstance of a of a sad man who's bitter and uh trying to take it out through a criminal prosecution that again the FEC didn't believe was proper, the Southern District of New York didn't think was proper.
The only guy who thought this was proper was the DA, who had literally campaigned on getting Trump.
It said he had gone after him more than a hundred times, and it was a campaign promise to bring this goofy prosecution.
That that should not be how criminal law is utilized in our country.
You spent time in the at the trial uh in the courtroom, time to really, really take a good hard look at the jury.
But you know, a lot has happened since the last time we spoke.
How do you think all of this and clear the courtroom and the drama yesterday?
How is this playing out in the minds of jurors in your view?
Well, it's quite a commotion when the jury has to get up and leave and come back into the room.
They literally have to walk within about two feet of Donald Trump between Trump and the judge in and out and uh you know to get the alternates as well as the principal jurors from their specific seat and specific row uh in and out.
It it showcases uh, you know, the I think uh frustration on the part of the judge that he really wanted to unload on the witness.
And in some ways, that only makes the jury think more about that particular witness's testimony.
Uh I was there for hours upon hours of testimony with Michael Cohen and the jury, and uh it was uh obvious to everyone in that room, whether they liked Trump or didn't, uh whether they uh you know were in the media or uh they're supporting a particular cause.
Those folks knew that Michael Cohen was lying.
When he got caught in the lie about uh why he was communicating with Keith Schiller, Donald Trump's body man.
I mean by the way, this is the one minute and thirty-six second call and the text messages uh that actually were timestamped as at the time of the call leading up to that call about him being, you know, ups upset over a 14-year-old that he described as a stalker making phone calls to him and asking Keith for help.
Right.
So it so Michael Cohen initially said that the only purpose of this call was to talk about the Stormy Daniels deal, and then text messages were unearthed showing that there was indeed a different purpose of that call.
So now Michael Cohen is saying, well, there were there were in fact two purposes of the call when he previously said there was only one, and the text message suggests something else altogether.
There was one juror who seemed to almost buffed out laughing as Michael Cohen's uh lies were being exposed.
Uh you know, it it was almost hard to hold back laughter because you saw this guy get confronted with his own text messages uh complaining about a 14-year-old's uh messages to him about the Trump transition into office and him wanting the secret service.
Michael Cohen wanted no less than the Secret Service uh to hunt down this 14-year-old and give him the what for.
Under any circumstances, in spite of of all the prejudice of the judge in this case and all of the fundamental unfairness that we've been discussing.
Do you see any scenario under which there's a guilty verdict here?
Because I would argue even at this late hour, before they head into next Tuesday in closing arguments, uh I don't think if I surveyed that jury that anybody would be able to tell me what exactly it is that Donald Trump is being charged with.
Yeah, I mean, you you are left wondering as the viewer, what what's the crime here again?
Because uh, you know, familiar transactions, uh familiar activities, just like the David Pecker testimony, what it's i if it's a crime for candidates and campaigns to try to shape the media coverage of what they're doing and what their opponents are doing, then uh they're gonna need a lot more jails for literally everyone else in American politics today.
Uh so I I think that the a guilty verdict is certainly the least likely outcome here.
Uh I uh can't imagine on these facts and with this twisting of the law, any reasonable person uh could conclude that uh President Trump has committed a crime.
But remember, they've got to get all twelve, and and I think that that is exceedingly low.
I think that they're you know, I got the sense uh looking into the eyes of at least some of these jurors that there was an a real appreciation for how bizarre, strange, unfair, and unjust this prosecution was, and really all twelve of them should conclude that uh if uh if if they're looking at the evidence and and not bridled by any preconceived notions about Donald Trump or his presidency or his policies.
Well, we really appreciate you being with us, Congressman Matt Gates, Florida.
Thank you.
800 941 Sean, our number if you want to be a part of the program.
Hey there.
I'm Mary Catherine Hamm.
And I'm Carol Markowitz.
We've been in political media for a long time.
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We talk about the issues that actually matter to the country without panic, without yelling, and with a healthy dose of humor.
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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.
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.
All right, before we hit the phones here, well, it hasn't been a good couple of days for Joey.
Uh, this from just earlier today, where Joe Biden talks about signing a PAC and and PAC and LAC Act into law.
Let me close with this.
After I signed the PAC and PAC Act into law.
After I signed the PAC and PAC and LAC Act into law.
Linda, you know what that means?
Can you interpret that for me?
I think what he was really saying is, I love alpaca.
I love alpaca sweaters.
I'm signing a sweater lollin that all people must wear alpaca sweaters.
That's what I got from that Sean.
Just saying.
Unbelievable.
Now it's not been a very good day for and week for Clueless Joe.
And by the way, it's only Tuesday, not exactly a hard week.
Now, yesterday they had to make nine brutal corrections to his speech to the NAACP.
Nine.
I mean, Biden's first mistake at the very beginning of the speech tells a story about Obama dispatching him to Detroit during the pandemic.
They had to fix that mess.
Then moments later, Biden telling the N NAACP he's humbled to receive this organization.
In the White House transcript, they crossed out organization, corrected it with award.
We're cracking down on corporate landlords who keep rents down.
Was changed to, we're cracking down on corporate landlords to keep rents down.
While another unfortunate sentence describing those who took part in the Capitol riots as erectionists.
Corrected to insurrectionists.
You know what an erectionist is, Linda?
I think we should ask who is it, Jayapol, right?
Wasn't it Jaya Paul who said that in front of uh Full House of Congress when she was referring to Trump.
They got a lot of electionists over there.
A lot of erectionists.
Uh then Biden incorrectly quoting former President Trump as saying that there would be bloodshed if he loses in November.
That was corrected to bloodbath, as was a moment where Biden mistakenly claimed to have saved millions of families eight hundred thousand dollars per year in premiums.
Well, Biden corrected his eight hundred thousand dollar mistake during the speech.
He replaced it with eight thousand dollars a year in premiums, which is also incorrect.
Never mind the millions and billions that you and I talked about yesterday.
Then he tells the White House gathering that an American hostage who's still being held by Ha Hamas is here with us today.
Like he talks to dead people.
Talks to hostages now.
He imagines that they're in the crowd.
Obama orders him to go to Detroit during the pandemic and help fix it.
Wow.
I mean, ha how do you have so many mistakes in one speech?
It does make uh well pretty compelling case for those that have been saying and predicting he's not gonna be on the ticket, I'll tell you that.
Uh let us say hi to Tim in Tennessee.
Tim, how are you?
Glad you called, sir.
Thanks so much.
Sean, I'm a trial attorney for thirty years, and I just want to magnify what Professor Dershwiss and Turley and and uh Trey Gower say.
It's just extraordinary the favoritism that's being shown by this judge and the fact he hasn't tossed out that trial when there's no elements of a crime, and they're trying to boot a m uh uh a misdemeanor up to a felony on a federal statute that state courts have no jurisdiction to bring.
Just incredible.
And if I were a low information New York voter, I would be ashamed because it would be to me like the Edmund Tennis Bridge.
Yeah, but uh but counselor, that's a problem.
A low information New York voter.
You just answered your question.
They have no clue, and now the judge is trying to prevent them from even knowing the law by preventing the the FEC former head uh from explaining what the law actually says.
So he's he's basically trying to to help the prosecution recover from the disastrous trial that it's been.
And jury instructions are only going to be worse.
Well, those should have already been in weeks ago before the dreams got there.
They should have had those submitted in the last little thing before pre-prial before the after started the the trial should have been analyzing those.
How do you like the fact that uh Bragg, according to Costello, uh was given all of this exculpatory information that was withheld from the grand jury?
How do you like that little development?
Well, that's that's clearly what we call plain error.
That's brady material that should have been given and would have exculpatory would have eviscerated their their their claim of a of uh crime being committed.
There's somebody You get a you get an A plus because that's exactly what Mark Levin's been saying.
That's it.
I'm done.
He's been right all along.
Anyway, Tim, I got a roll, man.
Uh uh no, I've never seen anything like this ever.
Ever.
Rhode Island, Lou, next.
Sean Hannity Show.
What's up, uh Lou?
Where in Rhode Island do you live?
Well, I live north of uh Providence.
I live in Lincoln, Rhode Island, and it's one of the pre places I know because uh I was on your show with uh the Handy show, I got one of your footballs.
You're phenomenal, phenomenal host.
You uh greeted us all in line.
But anyway, um I don't know, I don't know what he stammered the folks, John.
You you really are an amazing person.
Um very kind, thank you.
I think the the gentleman before talked about the exculpatory emails.
But in my my situation, I have a case that was a hundred missing exhibits.
You had the jury pool, who I believe was pre-selected, and I think what Trump has gotta watch out for, which he already knows eighty-five percent of those people are compromised, and the judge is he's a lunatic.
Um, I think what he's gonna watch out for is he has to get every one of those people that were selected for the jury, because every one of them can be compromised.
In my case, I believe the chur the jury was actually selected.
The whole pool was actually selected before my case started, and I won't get into that.
I think that's one of the things Trump has to really look out for, because as you know, these people have done a lot of planning.
They planned before the case started with the grand jury, eliminating all that exculpatory evidence and not letting it come under their purview.
And I really believe that there's a strong possibility that the whole jury pool was preselected in some way.
I believe they probably, um, uh, stripped and, and circumvented the process that normally takes place in, in New York and picking jury pools.
So I just wanted to put him on a, well, they're supposed to have a, you know they're not supposed to choose a judge either and they bypass the process of of having a random selection and they picked a perfect anti-Trump judge.
I mean it's it's pretty unbelievable.
But you know well well welcome to the state of New York where things are more corrupt than ever.
I can tell you that.
Anyway my friend I appreciate it uh 800 941 Sean is our number if you want to be a part of the program Sharon Sharon in my free state of Florida.
Hey Sharon how are you?
I'm fine I'm fine showing um I wanted to speak to a couple things about the trial but um just quickly I wanted to say that we should the United States and the UN should have sent just one word over to Iran when this man died and I don't like when people die but he was the head of terrorism and responsible for so many so much suffering and so many people dying we should have sent one word over congratulations.
The one word would have been you know good riddance goodbye.
I don't care whatever it is anyone would be appropriate.
Right.
And I just want to it's just it's just sad that the U.S. sending condolences when a you know terrorist like this dies.
It's just pathetic it just is is so lacking in in any moral clarity and it's just you know they're they're sucking boot looking the you know the the feet of terrorists it's just disgusting and nauseating and I'm embarrassed as a country that this guy's our president.
I'm just embarrassed.
I find it embarrassing and I find it a dangerous situation on top of everything else.
And humiliating yeah it's humiliating when you lick the boots of dictators yeah and terrorists yeah it is very he wasn't a he wasn't a this guy wasn't apologizing when all these people died to us or to Israel he wasn't apologizing so no they orchestrated it they fomented it they supported it they helped train for it and uh they're they're in part responsible for it.
Right right but anyway getting on to the trial um first of all this judge is so bitter and like you were saying bitter and angry because he probably pinned his hopes on being famous for being the one judge you could put Trump away you know so that's well let me tell you this judge is dying to go to all the prestigious New York New York parties and New York social cycle and and all of that.
That's what he's looking forward to.
That's what he wanted.
One judge but anyway um with the isn't this election interference what they're doing keeping him in court all day not 100% of this sure it is so can he do something to sue them for that?
No there's absolutely no recourse for President Trump except that on appeal this judge is not going to dismiss this case this isn't going to be a director verdict.
It's gonna be it's gonna go to tr it's gonna go to the jury and he's gonna give them abusively biased jury instructions and you just got to hope and pray that there's at least one person on that jury that sees through this farce and is not going to tolerate it.
Right.
Well it burns me up as a taxpayer that us tax we're paying for the all the police protection of the police out there I'm paying for all this you know with our tax yeah anyway um I just had a question to ask you about the debate um who makes up the questions for the debate uh well usually the moderators I mean nobody knew the questions I had for the DeSantis and and Gavin Newsom debate and all I all I told both sides I told them the same thing.
I said no surprises no tricks I said all the issues you would expect that the people in your respective states want to talk about and you know I was pretty clear law order taxes you know all that stuff and and I stuck to uh my promise to both of them.
Okay so would aren't the people from CNN then they're making up all the questions for the debate is that correct that would be correct.
Okay.
That's why fake Jake you know has no business being on this being a moderator in that debate.
Right right well I think the moderator there should be one from Fox and one from uh NN I mean that's the fair thing to do.
But anyway um with the qu as far as the questions go you know they're gonna get them to Joe Biden and they're gonna have them all pumped up with all the answers ahead of time.
I mean, wouldn't it only be fair if like they had equal questions from the uh from the Democrats and equal questions from the Republican side and not to be given in till the last minute?
I mean, that's a fair thing to do.
Or equal questions from CNN and equal questions from Fox News and the last minute.
Otherwise, I mean, he's gonna know all the answers ahead of time, all the questions and answers ahead of time.
And they're gonna come up, you know.
These are just unbelievable times that we're in, but what else would you expect?
I mean, you know, CNN has a history of of giving questions to their favorite candidates uh ahead of time anyway.
So, you know, we'll I guess we're just gonna have to wait, watch and see what happens.
All right, let's get uh back to our phones.
Thank you, Sharon.
Appreciate the call as we say hi to John in Florida also.
Hey John, how are you, sir?
Hi, Sean.
Thanks for taking the call.
What's going on?
I think that uh my suggestion is that President Trump should agree to a debate.
He should proffer a debate on Fox in front of an audience and invite RFK Jr.
And if Biden doesn't show up, he'll have an empty chair on the stage, an empty podium on the stage.
And both candidates will, of course, attack Biden.
And I think RFK Jr. would draw votes from Biden, which would be all to the advantage of President Trump.
I haven't spent enough time on it, but I will when the time is right over RFK's record.
Um he doesn't want to take my calls or do a show.
I did it, I even did a town hall with him, and I just gave him time to talk and introduce himself uh to the American people.
But RFK's a pretty radical Democrat and he supports reparations and he you know he just came out in favor of race-based reparations.
Uh we know that his positions on taxes, the environment, he's against fracking, oil extraction, keep it in the ground as his campaign.
Uh he's voted for every leftist democrat that you could ever list or support.
And I just think that he has to show a certain degree of support before he gets in a debate, and that is pretty standard procedure.
If he shows that he's on in enough states to get enough electoral votes, and he shows that he has enough support in the polls, then he'll earn his way into the debates.
But unless and until we get to that point, he I wouldn't be debating him.
He has to earn that.
Well, I think I think the objective is to have an empty chair, an empty podium.
Uh on the Yeah, you could you you can have two empty chairs.
So you're gonna you're gonna have an empty chair for Joe.
I absolutely would do that in a heartbeat.
Like Trump accepted the debate on Fox, and Joe Biden said no, I'd have a debate set up, and if Joe chooses not to show, I'd have an empty podium.
That's what I'd do.
Not that anybody's gonna listen to me, but that that's that would be my hand way of handling it.
Anyway, my friend, I got a roll.
800-941 Sean is a number.
All right, the trial's coming to an end.
The battle over jury instructions has been ongoing.
Pam Bondy's been in the courtroom all day today.
We'll check in with her.
Uh, we'll get comments from Alan Dershowitz, Greg Jarrett.
Uh, also uh we have Professor uh Jonathan Turley, Alina Haba, uh Senator Ted Cruz, Senator Katie Britt, also Newt Gingrich and Jim Jordan.
Nine Eastern City DVR, great show tonight.
Hannity, you won't get news on any other channel from the media mob on the Fox News channel.
See you then back here tomorrow.
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