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Oct. 1, 2024 - Sean Hannity Show
31:31
Rev. Franklin Graham - October 1st, Hour 3

 Rev. Franklin Graham, CEO of both Samaritan's Purse and the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association, is here to discuss their efforts on the ground.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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Stay right here for our final news roundup and information overload.
All right, news roundup, information overload hour.
Toll-free, our number is 800-941, Sean.
If you want to be a part of the program, only 35 days till Election Day, we have the vice presidential debate tonight on the Fox News channel.
And well, it's actually a CBS debate, but it's pooled.
We will have full coverage.
We'll run the full debate.
I will be on at 8:30 Eastern Time.
Immediately after the debate, I'll be on with Brett and Martha, and then I'll be hosting the show.
JD Vance will be my special guest at 11 Eastern.
That's 8 o'clock out on the West Coast.
As early voting now has also started all around the country.
And it looks like the world is going to hell in a handbasket pretty fast as we see the ballistic missile attack, direct attack from Iran at Israel on top of the never-ending attacks from Gaza and Hamas in the south and Hezbollah out of Lebanon in the north.
It is absolutely frightening.
And to watch Israel, you know, taking in all these ballistic missiles from Iran and having to swat them out of the sky, you know, at some point, their systems are going to get overwhelmed.
And Israel has had to defend itself.
And what part of murder and rape and kidnapping and torture and beheadings do people not understand?
I'm having a hard time understanding how we have a top presidential candidate that says we need to be courageous and never say the words radical Islamic terrorism.
On top of that, we are following the aftermath of Hurricane Helene.
North Carolina, it turns out, got hit as hard as Florida and Georgia, if not harder.
Boone, North Carolina, well known because of the ministry of the Reverend Billy Graham, his son Franklin Graham from there, who's going to join us in a second.
But they are responding all over those counties.
And the videos are just absolutely chilling.
Asheville, North Carolina, Valdosta, Georgia, Perry, Florida, Tampa, Florida.
Many of my friends have gotten hammered there.
And yesterday, when President Trump went to Valdosta, he was joined by the Reverend Franklin Graham, and he's the CEO of both Samaritans Purse and the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association.
And as usual, you know, Samaritan's Purse is there.
They're on the ground and they're helping with food and water and medicine and supplies and gas and energy and basically every need that people need.
We saw their great work during COVID.
They set up a hospital in Italy.
They set up a hospital in Central Park until that got politicized, which never should have happened.
But just so you know, yesterday I got in touch with the Samaritans Purse Ministry and I made a donation because I just believe in the great work that they do.
They're the real deal.
And the Reverend Franklin Graham has been a longtime friend of this program, friend of mine.
And it's an honor to always have you back, sir.
Well, thank you, Sean.
Good to be with you.
Well, I appreciate it.
You've been seeing the devastation up close and personal.
And I'd hope that people will go to samaritanspurse.org and whatever they can donate.
One thing about the American people, they're very generous when others are in need, and there are a lot of people in need right now.
What are you seeing?
Well, there's no question there's a lot of need.
One of the problems, Sean, is here in the mountains of Western North Carolina.
I mean, it's beautiful, and many people have gone back up in the mountains and built homes.
And what's happened with this heavy rain that came, roads washed away.
And so there are entire communities that are left stranded.
They can't get in.
They can't get out.
There's no cell service, no electricity.
I don't have electricity in my home.
Well, I can't.
Do I need to buy Franklin Graham a generator?
Would you like me to buy you a generator for Christmas?
But, you know, I appreciate that, Sean.
I got a generator, but the problem is the fuel for the generator.
You've got to keep that thing going.
So you turn your generator on for a few hours a day and then turn it off to conserve the fuel.
But it's really, there are people that have lost everything.
And we had a lady, volunteers went to her house earlier today, and she had tears streaming down her cheeks.
She said, I'm not crying because I lost everything.
She said, I'm crying because love has just showed up.
And she was thinking of those volunteers that poured out of the van come in there to help her.
And she saw those, every face is a face of love.
And, you know, it's just an opportunity, Sean, for us to help people.
These are our citizens.
These are our neighbors.
This is our country.
And many times we're working in other countries, but we have an opportunity now to help here in North Carolina and South Carolina, Georgia, Florida.
It's just incredible.
But the mountains, especially here in Western North Carolina, from Boone, where I live, all the way down to Asheville, the devastation is, we've never seen it like this before.
And I don't think people understand.
I was very, my heart was warmed at the fact, and we got confirmation of this from Elon Musk himself.
And President Trump was in touch with Elon Musk yesterday, and he X'd out today that since the Hurricane Helene disaster, SpaceX has sent as many Starlink terminals as possible to help areas in need.
Earlier today, the president, Donald Trump, alerted me to additional people who need Starlink internet in North Carolina.
We're sending those terminals right away.
I mean, it's amazing that people just, you know, didn't bat an eyelash.
They just step up and they help.
And you're seeing it up front and personal.
So I'm very grateful to all that you're doing.
But with your own eyes and the people that you're talking to in North Carolina, Georgia, Tennessee, Florida, how bad is it in some of these areas?
Well, we've never seen it like this before, Sean.
This is the worst we've ever seen.
And so talk about Elon Musk, the Starlink.
We could use hundreds of those if we had them, but you have to give a small generator along with the Starlink because you've got to be able to plug it in.
And that's the problem.
There's no electricity.
But if we can get a small generator, I'm talking about like a Honda 1000, and I think it'll run almost all day on a cord of gasoline.
But that Starlink and a small generator, if I had them, I'd give them to churches.
Because in almost every community, the church is reaching out to people up and down those hollers, up and down the rivers.
They're the people who know, I mean, the churches know where the people are and how to get to them.
And so we believe in working with the local church.
And there's hundreds of churches here in Western North Carolina that could use a Starlink.
So if Elon Musk is listening, I hope he'll send us some because we'll use them immediately.
Well, there are great people in this audience, too.
By the way, I contacted your guy, Steve, yesterday.
He never got back to us.
I texted him and tell him I want to send it out.
You can buy a bunch of generators with the money I wanted to send over.
And it's my pleasure.
And I know this audience is generous, SamaritansPurse.org.
And it's amazing when your trucks show up and your tractor trailers show up and your planes show up.
I mean, it is life for people whose entire lives have been, you know, turned upside down.
I mean, it's so hard when you think of how, you know, people work their entire lives to get a home and they get it.
And then, you know, in just the matter of an hour or so, everything could be wiped away.
And you have seen a lot of that in the course of your life and your work.
And, you know, Sean, love the people that lost.
everything are not necessarily wealthy people.
These are hardworking people.
And they go from paycheck to paycheck.
And not only have they lost their home, the livelihood, but their property is destroyed.
And it's going to take a long time to come back from this, Sean.
And it could take a year or more just to get the roads back up to where you can to reach these communities.
And as far as power, I don't know when that's going to come back, but hopefully in the next few weeks.
But we just need to pray for the people here as we reach out.
Samaritans first, when we reach out, Sean, we do it in Jesus' name.
It's not the name of Franklin Graham or Samaritans first.
We reach out in Jesus' name.
We want these people to know that God loves them.
He's not mad at them.
And many times when people come through a storm, Sean, they think God is mad at them.
No, the Bible tells us that God loves us.
And if we put our faith and trust in him and his Son, Jesus Christ, we know that God will forgive our sins and he'll heal our hearts and he'll take us through these storms and he'll get us all the way to the other side one day with him in heaven.
And that's what we want the people to know is that God loves them.
In the middle of this storm, when we show up, we're showing up in Jesus' name.
Well, I know that you do that.
And I will tell you, as you get older, I was kidding with you in a text that I said, you really do look more like your dad every day.
It's amazing.
I would say in some ways you kind of look like twins, but I know your dad's very proud of the great work that he accomplished in his life and you're following through on it.
You know, you once said that these times seem almost biblical, that, you know, as you read the Bible and you're far more knowledgeable than I am, although I have started doing Bible studies and I do them regularly.
And, you know, I feel like I'm very familiar with the scripture, having been raised Catholic, but I'm more non-denominational now.
And I can tell you, it certainly feels like it at times, doesn't it?
Watching Israel fighting a forefront war.
I mean, as you saw this news breaking all day, what were your thoughts?
Oh, I was in Israel just two weeks ago, and I was there when those pagers blew up in Lebanon.
And so Samaritans First, we've responded there by providing 40 ambulances to McKin David Dadom.
That's the emergency responders, like the Red Cross here in this country.
That's the Red Star of David in Israel.
And we gave 40 ambulances.
October 7th last year, they lost 14 due to Hamas.
And they shot the drivers, shot the people in them, destroyed the ambulances.
And so we've replaced those 14, but we decided they need some armored ones.
And so we've been helping to replace or not place, but give armored.
So we'll have up to 40 ambulances within a few months.
Given the money, we've got them on order.
But they need armor-plated ambulances.
So that's what we're doing this.
But it is biblical in a sense.
The Bible tells us that as we approach the end of this age, of this world, the world is going to turn on Israel.
The world is going to become more violent.
People's hearts are going to be more cold.
And we see that today, just in this country, the anger of people, the road rage that we see on the highway.
We didn't see this 30, 40 years ago.
But we just see how people are becoming more and more violent.
And when the flood came, and when you read Noah in the Bible in Genesis, the Bible says that the world had become completely violent and the heart of man was wicked.
And that's where we are today.
And I just think we're coming down.
Maybe to maybe when Christ will come back.
And I'm looking forward to when that day is.
But until then, I'm going to reach out and try to help as many people as I can, Sean.
You really have taken on an incredible mission.
And I just urge all of our listeners to the extent possible.
These people in North Carolina, Georgia, Tennessee, even Kentucky, Virginia, Florida, you know, they are suffering.
And Samaritan's Purse, I mean, you guys are the real deal.
You get on the ground, you get your hands dirty, and you're helping people, and you're helping them rebuild their lives.
And is SamaritansPurse.org the best place for people to go?
Absolutely.
SamaritansPurse.org.
Yes, sir.
Well, we really appreciate it, Reverend.
You're a good man.
Thank you for all the good work you do.
All right.
And I'll get Steve to call you.
Yeah, have Steve call me.
I appreciate it.
800-941 Sean is our number.
If you want to do a part of the program, quick break, right back.
We'll continue.
Wondering why Iran is attacking, not afraid of America under Harris and Biden.
You know, listen to Joe Biden, you know, on strikes in Yemen says he supports collective bargaining.
He's totally out of it.
Then John Kirby saying, well, I can't predict if billions sent to Iran is going to free up money for terror.
Are you really that stupid?
Listen.
Any comment on the strikes in Yemen, Mr. President?
Both sides have got to sell the strikes.
You insist the Iranian regime won't touch the $6 billion of Iranian funds being unfrozen.
But isn't it true that this frees Tehran up to spend more on other nefarious goals like supporting terrorism and boosting its nuclear program?
Well, to the degree that they continue destabilizing activities and it's, you know, I can't predict what they'll do going forward here.
All right, we're going to have the very latest.
Over 180 ballistic missiles fired by Iran directly into Israel.
Trey Yanks has been our chief foreign correspondent on the ground.
He's in Israel today.
He just came out with a new book, by the way, about October the 7th called Black Saturday, an unfiltered account of the October 7th attack on Israel and the war in Gaza.
You know, now Israel is officially fighting not a one-front war, two-front war, three-front war, but a four-front war.
And Israel's going to respond.
They're not going to take this.
Anyway, so when we come back, we'll check in with Trey Yanks.
We'll try to get to some of your phone calls.
800-941-Sean, remember, I'm on at 8.30 tonight on the Fox News channel in the lead up to the JD Vance-Tim Walz debate.
And I'll be on immediately after 10.30.
And then Hannity with JD Vance at 11 o'clock tonight.
All right.
So different programming times tonight.
All coming up on the Fox News channel.
Quick break, right back.
We'll continue.
Stay in touch with the Hannity Faithful.
Join the message board at Hannity.com.
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Our number is 800-941, Sean.
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We're going to be joined by my friend Trey Yangst.
He has been in the middle of this barrage of ballistic missiles being fired from Iran into Israel, now fighting basically a forefront war.
If you include the Houthi rebels and Hezbollah from the north out of Lebanon and Hamas out of the south, there's been a lot that has happened with the killing of Nasrallah, the 32-year leader of Hezbollah, and Iran now getting involved, although their supreme leader is safely ensconced in his bunker deep underground, scared to death, as they always fight their little proxy wars.
I do think there will be a fierce response by Israel.
I don't think they're stopping, and they're not going to allow these countries and these terror groups that have been threatening to wipe them off the face of the earth, or as they say, from the river to the sea that you hear in the halls of Congress and on college campuses and around the world with the rise of anti-Semitism to get there.
Anyway, our friend Trey Yangst is with us, Fox News, foreign correspondent, and he has a new book out called Black Saturday, an unfiltered account of what happened nearly a year ago on the October 7th attack on Israel and the war in Gaza and now the war with Lebanon and now engaged with the Houthi rebels and with Iran directly.
This has all of the markings of something that's about to spiral out of control in the entire region.
Now, Trey has been on the ground, firsthand accounts.
I watched them all day today.
180 missiles from Iran, ballistic missiles, most of them fired.
Anyway, Trey is with us.
Trey, how are you, sir?
Yes, son, I'm doing all right.
It's really an unprecedented moment right now in the region.
Yeah, what's the latest?
I know the missile firing has stopped.
And at least for now, I fully expect that Prime Minister Netanyahu and Israel will respond.
I think the response is probably going to be more fierce than it was the last time.
How many of these missiles do you know of that actually got through?
You're exactly right.
The expectation here is that the Israelis are going to respond much harder than they did back in April when the Iranians first attacked with ballistic missiles.
We don't know exactly how many got through.
In total, there were 180 ballistic missiles, according to the Israeli military, that were launched toward Israel.
Some of them were intercepted outside of Israeli territory and others slammed into the ground.
We've seen images of craters and shrapnel falling down from the sky as Israel's Aero-3 missile defense system was active.
We were standing on a balcony in the northern city of Haifa, and we could see these interceptor rounds coming off the skyline and picking off these missiles.
And it gives you a sense of just how active the scene was as two waves at least were fired from Iran.
Truly unprecedented as we look forward here.
And as you noted, rightly so, this comes as the Israelis are still fighting on the ground inside Gaza and just last night launched a ground operation into southern Lebanon to go after Iran-Baked Hezbollah there.
Yeah, pretty amazing.
Let's go back to October 7th.
And you write about this, and you've been covering all of this and putting your life on the line.
And I have nothing but deep admiration for what you do every day.
And I know that often when I'm talking to you on TV at night, it's three, four o'clock in the morning, your time, which I know it's very difficult to do, but you're always there.
You're always available.
But if you go back to October 7th, 1,200 people killed, all these people that were kidnapped, including Americans, we had, and what I don't have a hard time understanding is the rise of virulent anti-Semitism in the halls of Congress, college campuses worldwide.
We've seen it since then, you know, chanting from the river to the sea, which means annihilate Israel.
We know Hamas's charter, Hezbollah's commitment, is to wipe Israel off the map.
And Israel, you know, had to deal with murder, the equivalent of 40,000 Americans killed in a single day.
If you look at their population size versus ours, but there was murder, rape, torture, kidnapping, beheadings.
And I'm trying to understand for those people that are so anti-Israel, what part of that do they not understand?
I usually could understand the other side a little bit.
I have no understanding of people that don't recognize this desire of many to wipe Israel off the map.
Absolutely.
And I write about this in Black Saturday.
We responded to what we thought was just a rocket attack that morning on October 7th.
I was in Tel Aviv.
I got a call from my producer at 7.03 in the morning, and she said something's happening in the South.
And so the team and I, like we always do, drove toward the Gaza border so we could do live shots on Fox News.
And as we got closer, we started to understand, okay, this isn't just a rocket attack.
This is also an infiltration.
There are gunmen in these communities, and they've infiltrated into southern Israel and were looking around, and the army was nowhere to be found.
Police were doing the best they could.
Brave officers running into the line of fire with pistols.
And it was really a horrific thing to witness.
We watched officers die in front of us.
But as the story progressed and as we went into these communities along the Gaza border, known as the Kibbutzim, we saw the brutal aftermath, the bodies that were spread throughout these communities of families that were home on a Saturday morning on Shabbat.
They were peaceful people.
And what's so interesting about the communities that were attacked, they are considered the left of Israeli society, the peace activists, the people who believed in finding common ground between Israelis and Palestinians, and they were massacred.
And so I write about this in Black Saturday.
And for the survivors, the people who survived that attack and some of whom were taken hostage into the Gaza Strip, I also interviewed them.
And they were released, some of them, as part of the November ceasefire deal.
And the stories that they tell as they were dragged into the tunnels beneath Gaza with their young children are just horrific.
And I think that it's easy to forget what happened on that day less than a year ago because there is so much news developing across the region.
The Middle East remains the focal point of foreign policy, especially headed toward November.
But we can't forget about it because it's important to remember not only did it happen, but it's still going on for the Israeli people.
There are still around 100 hostages, some of them dead and some of them alive inside Gaza.
And we don't even know.
And I guess having been to Israel myself, and I actually took a helicopter ride from the Mediterranean all the way up the coast into the old city.
I've been to the old city.
I've had a number of tours there.
I've been in the terror tunnels.
I've been in Starot, that border town with Gaza.
I've been there when the Iron Dome was actually firing missiles out of the air.
One night when we were there, we come back and the next day we went to the same kibbutz and it was struck with missiles the night before in that one town that we went to, the border town with Gaza.
They had been hit with 10,000 rockets in 10 years.
The rockets get more lethal over time.
Kids play in underground bunker playgrounds.
They can't play outside because there's not enough time by the time because of their close proximity to Gaza.
And this is everyday life.
And I would ask people in Gaza, I'm like, well, why do you stay here?
And they'd look at me like I have five heads.
And they'd be like, because it's our home.
And I'm like, I understand, but I mean, you're getting hammered with missiles by people that are committed to your destruction on a daily basis.
I might want to move to a different part of the country.
But they're not moving.
They're not going to leave.
They refuse.
And there's a part of me that admires it.
Yeah, they're brave people, and they're very welcoming of people who are visiting from abroad, and they're willing to show you around and really teach you about what life is like there.
And in an interesting way, they have adapted to life in southern Israel.
They've lived under rocket fire for so long.
And these communities along the border have seen so many changes in the government and the society here, but many things have remained the same.
And I think that as we look forward in this story, there are questions about after this brutal attack on October 7th, how many people will return to those communities that were directly targeted?
And from the people I interviewed for this book, it was a variety of responses.
Actually, one guy who is the brother of our Fox engineer, he was in a community called Neroz, and these governments stormed the house when they couldn't get into his mamad, his shelter.
They burned the house down.
And thankfully, this guy and his wife survived.
And I asked him, I mean, will you ever return?
Would you rebuild your house?
And he said, no, I just, I can't go back there now.
And that to me was just such an indication of the psychological impact that this attack has had on the people who live in these communities.
I know that there's been some political issues and differences over how to confront all of this.
But at the end of the day, I've known Prime Minister Netanyahu personally for nearly 30 years, and I consider him a friend.
And there's no way in our lifetime, and you tell me if you think I'm wrong, he's going to allow Israel to be wiped off the map under his watch.
It's not going to happen.
And I think that I think the Iranians, what they did today by escalating with ballistic missiles, it's going to turn out for them very badly in the end.
Look at what they've done.
They've taken out all the leaders of the Hamas.
They took out Nasrallah finally after 32 years, other leaders from Iran and from Hezbollah.
And I just, there's no way the Iranians are getting off scot-free here.
I could see their refineries and maybe even their nuclear sites hit.
Is that a stretch?
No, I don't think it's a stretch at all.
And in about 20 minutes, Netanyahu is going to convene a cabinet meeting, and they will likely be discussing these very options.
I mean, there are a variety of targets on the table for the Israelis, and they can do everything from send a message to inflict significant damage to the country's energy sector to its defense program to its nuclear program.
But I think the fact that this is the second ballistic missile attack against Israel in a year and just how widespread the attack was, it's going to be something significant.
And this is not a question of if Israel will respond, but rather when and how.
I appreciate your time.
Trey, you're a great colleague.
You're a brave reporter.
You do a phenomenal job.
He's the chief foreign correspondent, often reporting out of the Middle East for the Fox News channel.
His new book is out Black Saturday, an unfiltered account of the October 7th attack on Israel and the war in Gaza.
We have a link we're putting up on Hannity.com.
There's one on Amazon.com, bookstores around the country.
Trey, you're incredibly courageous in your job.
You do an amazing amount of work, and I'm very grateful for everything you do.
Please stay safe.
Thank you, Sean.
Really appreciate it.
800-941-Sean is on number if you want to be a part of the program.
With all the attacks against Israel, we haven't spent as much time as I wanted to on the debate tonight.
Let me just give you a quick programming rundown.
8.30 Eastern, 5.30 Pacific, I'm going to be on with Brett and Martha giving an analysis of what we can expect with the debate.
Then immediately following the debate at 10.30, I will be on with them giving some analysis.
Then JD will be on with me in the spin room right after he can get off the stage, get through the crowd of reporters that are there and over to wherever it is that I'll be broadcasting.
They usually put me in a corner somewhere.
You know, put Hannity in the corner over there.
Anyway, so we'll have full coverage of that.
First, there's going to be Nora O'Donnell and Margaret Brennan.
You tell me if you don't think they're biased going into tonight's debate.
A new line, a false attack on Vice President Harris.
Kamala Winners, full communist.
We'll tell you why that's wrong.
You write, it is time to take a stand against Trump.
If he is dangerous to democracy, as you say, should he be removed from office?
There are so many legal issues in this campaign.
And I want to ask you about one involving the president's son, Hunter Biden, who's going to appear in court this week.
And I wonder after this plea happens, if you would advise your party to move on.
The president of the United States castrating the facts of the election disenfranchising millions of voters whose ballots have not been counted, sadly, because of the raging pandemic and the failures of the administration.
This is Uncle Joe, you know, regular Joe from Scranton, Pennsylvania, and the Rust Belt states.
And he's really talking about that the core values of this nation are at stake.
I mean, he comes with a wealth of background and to take him on essentially what are issues of character.
He is recovering from these injuries now.
This was a traumatic event, no doubt, for him.
But I did notice there was no call for lowering the temperature, condemning all political violence.
Does Donald Trump bear some responsibility for that?
Does he need to change his rhetoric?
I mean, it's the same situation.
It's like three-on-one.
But I do have confidence JD knows what he's getting into, but it is what it is.
But anyway, a tough day for Israel also today.
181 rockets fired, ballistic missiles fired by Iran into Israel while they were being hammered from the north by Lebanon and Hezbollah.
And it's been a very, very difficult time for the Israeli people.
Our prayers, our thoughts are with them.
Is that your DVR?
Well, not really.
I mean, I'll be on at 11 p.m. Eastern, 8 p.m. Pacific, and then I'll be on before the debate, right after the debate with Brett and Martha.
Have a great night.
Back here tomorrow.
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