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Jan. 15, 2025 - Sean Hannity Show
32:04
Fetterman in the White House - January 14th, Hour 2
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This is an iHeart Podcast.
I think Scott shot an hour two, Sean Hannity Show, 800941 Sean, our number if you want to be a part of the program.
I know a lot of you want to weigh in on the hearings that took place today.
Every American is gonna walk away from this and just realize these people in DC are some of the dumbest people that you will ever meet in your life.
They care about the superfluous, they care about nothing of substance.
They know nothing about the topics of which they are discussing.
I I've got to admit I've been surprised by one Democrat and only one.
And it is Pennsylvania Senator John Fetterman.
And John Fetterman, I've listened to his comments about Israel.
I've listened to his comments about energy.
I've listened to his comments about immigration.
I've listened to his comments about President Trump having, you know, should should having the right to have the cabinet uh after a duly won election.
And and clearly there is a lot of resentment building towards him among the Democratic rank and file, uh, because I guess they want everybody to just kind of be, you know, in the in the Chuck Schumer, Adam Schiff, uh Tim Kane, who you know, a bumbling idiot, you know, questioning Pete at length about his personal life.
I'm like, weren't you Hillary Clinton's uh running mate back in the day?
I'm just just saying, you know, uh are you really the right person to be lecturing people?
Anyway, uh John Fetterman met with President Trump, President Trump said uh publicly that he was very impressed with the meeting, and anyway, Fetterman says, you know, st states the obvious, which is why is it controversial to meet with Donald Trump's nominees?
Here's what he said.
Is this Tulsey Gavard one of the nominees that you could vote for?
Well, uh you know, I I met with her.
Uh in fact, I think I've met with virtually all of them, and the ones that I haven't, they're on my schedule, RFK and uh Governor Gnome.
Um so uh I'm happy to meet with all of them.
And that's also part of this.
I don't know why that was controversial.
I mean, I got a lot of blowback just, you know, even to to meet with them.
I mean it's me, I see that as just doing my job, and I'm gonna have a conversation with with anyone that would like to have a a conversation with me.
And if if I if somebody believed everything that's been written or said about me was true, I mean you can't possibly know me, or I think I could know her either, uh, just based on someone red, but I'm gonna sit down and have a conversation.
And and I'm gr I'm really glad that I've done that.
And uh some of these nominees I'm gonna vote for uh already.
In fact, you know, whether it's my our colleague Rubio or uh Representative Stefanick or even uh Sean Duffy, you know, I expect to vote for him as well, too, and Brooke Rollins for for agriculture.
Again, uh so there's a lot of them I can say right now here on Fox, I'm gonna vote for for them.
I mean, pretty pretty spectacular, especially in light of the show hearing that we had earlier today.
And really that's all it is, because I think this is an an exercise in futility, and it's just a show.
And what did I tell you yesterday would happen today?
That democrats would revert to form, they would go back to their their just nonstop hatred of all things, Donald Trump, and they would return to Bork, they would return to a Justice Thomas, they'd return to Kavanaugh, they they just are they can't help themselves if they wanted to.
Anyway, uh joining us now is our friend Selena Zito, and Selena, of course, is the national political reporter for the Washington Examiner.
Uh nobody knows Pennsylvania as well as she does, and she's had a a long-term relationship with John Fetterman, knows everything about the state of Pennsylvania, uh, was very confident that it would go red very early on in this process.
I can tell you that private it was a private conversation, but I might as well give you credit now because uh you weren't saying publicly what you were telling me, but you were pretty confident and you turned out to be right as usual.
Yeah, you know, um well, there there is a benefit.
You know, people think it's a benefit to be a reporter in New York in Washington.
Uh and there is when you want access to power.
But when you want to understand people and sentiments, um you oftentimes there's a better benefit to living in Western Pennsylvania.
And I so I think that's what gave me um my uh my insight.
And and that's the thing about John Fetterman.
Uh and by the way, and how many miles did you put on your car during this last election year?
And and how many how many places did you visit in this last election year?
It was almost like you yourself were running for office.
Oh probably 40, 50 thousand miles.
Um and and that wasn't just in my state of Pennsylvania.
I had gone to North Carolina and Florida and Wisconsin, Michigan, uh, and out to Arizona.
The only s swing I would assume you I would assume you you got on an airplane for those trips.
I'm I'm assuming you didn't drive all those days.
Oh, I did.
I drove.
You drove to every one of those states?
Oh yeah.
It helps look here's why.
And I don't take interstates either.
So I take US routes and I take state routes.
Sometimes I end on a dirt road and don't know where in the heck I'm gonna end up.
But here's why I do that.
You cannot see and feel you cannot understand if you drop in or even if you take an interstate because you know each each in interchange is the same thing.
Right.
A gas station, a restaurant and maybe a strip mall, right?
You don't really understand how things are changing.
If you're not on a back road going through different counties, seeing what's prospering, seeing what's not working, seeing what you know what or the challenges are and that is m helped make um you know what is happening in the country very instructive.
And look and I will tell you that is how John Fetterman travels.
But also that was also how Dave McCormick traveled throughout this election.
He was just like either in his bus or in a truck driving on the back road and just talking to people and Fetterman is very good at that and so is Trump.
Trump, you know he is the first president in forever that went to Erie or Lazer.
Nobody ever goes to Butler or Johnstown or out uh Ambridge.
I mean these are the towns that he showed up in Indiana, Pennsylvania.
I can't remember the last president that went there.
But the only two I did this research for my book um the only two presidents to ever go to Butler County to the city of Butler were Donald Trump and John F. Kennedy and that was it.
I mean other presidents went but it was after they were president.
So that just sort of shows uh an understanding and the value of of making sure people feel seen.
That's why I've always believed his inflection point meaning President Trump happened when he went to East Palestine in February of 2023.
If you remember he was not doing all that great in the polls then but that all changed within a week after going to East Palestine.
I think it is very very vital if you are a public servant and we elect public servants although I think that you know it was on display today that a lot of these people want to serve themselves or put on a show for their party that they don't they're not putting the interests of the country first and foremost.
Certainly you know the one topic that should have been discussed in way more detail today was national security a gap of vulnerability hypersonic missile technology uh the next generation of warfare uh awoke military recruitment and and I just sit there and and to be honest I got bored by all of it in a pretty short period of time but I think you're right I think it really is about people.
I mean I think this is what we're watching unfold out in California right now and that is a massive failure of government and so many people put their faith hope and trust in in government but back to Fetterman for just a minute um I was as you know a big supporter of Dr. Oz uh in that race I do believe that a big impact.
I I think that it was very Doug Mastriano's No Exceptions for Rape Incest Mother's Life, I think hurt the entire Republican ticket that year.
I'm not saying he's a bad guy.
I think it's an untenable position politically.
Uh and I guess that's his heartfelt view.
But with that said, I mean, he lost by the largest margin to a non-incumbent Democratic uh candidate since the nineteen forties.
And I think that hurt the rest of the Republican ticket, uh Fetterman to his credit.
I mean, I I I will be very, very honest.
I never thought he'd make the recovery that he seems to have now made.
Um I'm happy that he made it.
I even said at the time, I wish him the best in terms of his health.
I think it was horrible what he went through.
I'm glad he's doing better.
But what's happened to him?
Uh d is it that I was wrong about him the whole time or has he changed?
No, this was always who John Fetterman was.
I've been covering Fetterman.
See, I I would argue that the only time Fetterman wasn't his truest self was when he was in recovery.
I think other people had a hand in, and that was um during the general election between him and Oz.
I think other people had a hand in in um uh suggesting a um message that was more progressive than John has ever been.
Um and once he recovered, um, not just from the stroke, but also the depression, right?
We we have to remember that that he recognized that he was depressed and and um placed himself in doctor's care for to recover from that.
He By the way, if if all of a sudden you have an inability to communicate and talk and you suffer a stroke and your whole life has been turned upside down and you struggle to get words out as he was struggling at the time, it's kind of understandable to me that that would be very frustrating and and somebody at that point in time would would get very down over that.
That does not seem unusual to me.
No, it's not unusual.
Plus you have to remember it was a heart condition that led to his stroke.
And and as many of us know who know someone that has a heart condition, heart when you have a heart condition, you are almost always depressed.
It's just part it's it it it's just something that goes hand in hand.
So I think that was um uh, you know, I mean, I'm not a doctor, but I I suspect that contributed to it.
So so Fetterman as a mayor, um was uh, you know, when he ran for mayor for in Braddock in 2005, I remember covering it.
He won by one vote.
It was an absentee ballot.
And and so he was he never ever was part of the establishment.
They never wanted him to run for Senate in 2016.
They never wanted him to um run for lieutenant governor.
People forget that he upended a sitting lieutenant governor at a primary, um, Tom Wolf's governor, and and so he's he's never been anybody's boy, right?
Like he's never been anybody's guy.
He's our guy, right?
He's not anybody's guy.
He's not the left, he's not the right, he's just a very pragmatic person who, you know, when if you've ever dro driven down Braddock Avenue in in Braddock, Pennsylvania, you know you have to be very, very good at governing and not very, very good at being an ideological prophet.
So do you believe that this is real?
I mean, I I know Joe Manchin personally, I like Joe Manchin, and Joe Manchin, you know, oftentimes in the end gave into the pressure of the Democratic caucus, the inflation reduction act being the probably the most recent big example.
Because he was dead set against it.
He said he wasn't gonna vote for it.
He eventually capitulated, he did vote for it, and I thought and his popularity had never been higher when he was opposing it.
And then when he in fact changed his position, his popularity never got lower.
That's exactly right.
Um look, Fetterman walks the lock.
I mean, he he says it and he does it.
And and he he stands up for his, you know, he if he's gonna tell you, hey, I'm not doing that, uh unless this, this, and this happens, and this, this, and this doesn't happen, he's not going to do it.
He doesn't care.
He never has.
He does what and and look, people forget that the job of a US senator or the job of a member of Congress or even a state and local rep and senator is to represent your state or your district.
And somewhere along the line, it became the uh things became twisted, and now you are supposed to represent your party.
And Fedman wants nothing to do with that.
And and you know, look, without I I will I I will stand by this statement.
Lake and Riley Act would have never gotten where it was it is if it be if he hadn't been the first Democrat to say, I'm supporting it.
Last question, and I have to run.
Do you think he'll ever become an independent or a Republican?
Um, I don't think.
I mean, look, look at the history of that happening in our state with Arlen Spector, right?
Arlene Spector Um was moved um by you know, offered you know flowers and gold and chocolate by Obama kidding, obviously, Obama and Biden.
Then as soon as they got his vote, they never talked to him.
Yeah, good point.
I don't think that's gonna be the case with Republicans.
I think they're gonna need him on energy, borders, Israel, uh defense, uh nominees.
I think they're gonna they definitely gonna need his help.
Uh Selena, we appreciate you being with us.
Thank you.
Uh 800-941 Sean, our number if you want to be a part of the program.
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Um, and you'll be glad you did on top of everything.
All right, let me go to uh Pete Heggseth from earlier today.
So much of this was just predictable, gratuitous, revert to form, you know, radical Democrats that that that just they they just so predictable.
It's all about smear slandabrous merchment.
They they have no ideas what this what the conversation should have been about all day today was America's gap of vulnerability created in large part by Joe Biden and Kamala Harris.
You know, how how come China has hypersonic missile technology with maneuverability and we don't?
You know, what is the next generation of warfare going to look like?
Because I doubt it's gonna be on a battlefield in in years to come.
And and these wars will be fought in offices, you know, by people pushing buttons.
And are we prepared for that next generation of of warfare?
Are we using artificial intelligence?
There was there was so much that they could have discussed that they didn't want to discuss because they're they're more interested in just scoring cheap political points and trying to bruise up and beat up, you know, Pete Heggseth for a time in his life where he acknowledges he was not a perfect person and how his life has changed.
They don't want that part of the story.
Americans are on the other hand, they love redemption stories and they believe in redemption and they believe in second chances, and they believe in you know the Latin derivative for repentance is to change your heart.
And he testified at length about his his faith.
Um at one point, you know, he talked about this coordinated smear campaign.
It's happened since the day he was announced, uh, the left-wing media against him, and here's what he said.
Mr. Chairman, thank you for that opportunity.
Um you are correct.
Um we undertook this responsibility with an obligation to the troops to do right by them for our warfighters.
And what became very evident to us from the beginning, there was a coordinated smear campaign orchestrated in the media against us.
Uh that was clear from moment one.
Um And what we knew is that it wasn't about me.
Most of it was about President Donald Trump, who's had to endure the very same thing for much longer amounts of time.
And he endured it in cred incredibly strong ways.
So we, in some ways, knew it was coming.
We didn't understand the depth of the dishonesty that would come with it.
So from story after story in the media, left-wing media, we saw anonymous source after anonymous source based on second or third hand accounts.
And time and time again, stories would come out, and people would reach out to me and say, you know, I've read I've spoken to this reporter about who you really are, and I was willing to go on the record.
But they didn't print my quote.
They didn't print any of my quotes.
Or I've worked with you for ten years, or I was your accountant, or I was your chief operating officer, or I was your board member, or I was with you on a hundred different tour stops for concerned veterans for America.
No one called me.
No one asked about your conduct on the record or off the record.
Instead, a small handful of anonymous sources were allowed to drive a smear campaign, an agenda about me, because our left-wing media in America today, sadly, doesn't care about the truth.
This is why good people never want to go into public service.
People don't want to endure that.
And one of the things I know about Pete, having worked with him, having been a colleague of his for so long, is he just doesn't back away from a fight.
It's not who he is.
It's not as it's not in his DNA.
And it's a guy that lives, breathes, sleep the military, as evidenced by his entire life and career.
This is this is his life's passion.
He spoke at length, and it was only during his time when he got to give his opening statement that we got his vision for the Department of Defense on how we're going to rebuild the military, re-establish deterrence, that peace through strength will come back responsibly in wars, and how the DOD standards will achieve peace through strength.
He goes into detail.
This is what matters in a hearing for a Secretary of Defense, but not if you're a liberal Democrat.
We're going to rebuild our military, always matching threats to capabilities.
This includes reviving our defense industrial base, reforming the acquisitions process, as you mentioned, Mr. Chairman, no more valley of death for new defense companies, modernizing our nuclear triad, ensuring the Pentagon can pass an audit and rapidly fielding emerging technologies.
And number three, we're going to re-establish deterrence.
First and foremost, we will defend our homeland, our borders and our skies.
Second, we will work with our partners and allies to deter aggression in the Indo-Pacific from the communist Chinese.
And finally, we will responsibly end wars to ensure that we prioritize our resources to reorient to larger threats.
We can no longer count on reputational deterrence.
We need real deterrence.
The Department of Defense under Donald Trump will achieve peace through strength.
And in pursuing these America-first national security goals will remain patriotically apolitical and stridently constitutional.
Unlike the current administration, politics should play no part in military matters.
We are not Republicans, we are not Democrats, we are American warriors.
Our standards will be high, and they will be equal, not equitable.
that's a very different word we need to make sure every warrior is fully qualified on their assigned weapons system every pilot's fully qualified and current on the aircraft they are flying and every general or flag officer is selected for leadership or promotion purely based on performance readiness and merit Leaders at all levels will Be held accountable.
And war fighting and lethality and the readiness of the troops and their families will be our only focus.
It was very heartwarming to actually see a lot of Navy SEALs and other veterans and patriots that showed up on Capitol Hill today to support Pete Hegseth.
Two of them are with us now, Navy SEALs Rob Sweetman and Bill Brown are with us, and they're partners in SEALs, Veterans Patriots for Pete Heggseth.
Uh guys, welcome to the program.
Thanks for being with us.
Thanks for having us, Sean.
Well, it started out great.
I think how many people got kicked out before the thing even really got started.
What about three or four?
Absolutely.
We had a strong contingent of Navy SEALs and combat veterans that we were out here at 4 30 in the morning freezing our butts off because we get up early to fight for what we believe in.
None of the leftists are going to wake up early.
So we build the entire Senate room.
We had a couple of pinkies we call them because they're wearing pink stuff and they just look bizarre.
They smelled.
And it wasn't long before uh Mr. Hegseth began to speak that they had loud outbursts, disrespecting the entire process.
They were immediately I my hats are off to Capitol Police because they moved very quickly and got them out of there immediately.
Uh and we stayed there in peaceful silence, just showing our support for Mr. Heggseth, and that's what we're doing.
We support him.
Rob, why do you support Pete and why is there so much support among rank and file?
I would argue it's probably my guess because he comes from there.
That's absolutely right.
And we're a little bit sick of what we've seen, right?
With Secretary Austin, we've got Afghanistan, we've got an open border, we've got the forced jabs that 8,000 service members, including many of my friends, were exited from the military, lost their careers.
It's sickening.
So when we look at getting a fresh start, we want somebody that's a warfighter that knows what it's like downrange.
And that's why 62 Romeo, our organization sponsored this whole event.
We brought everybody out under the guidance of Bill Brown, who's just a legend in bringing our our guys together.
Uh, but also men and women and and every branch was out here.
We also had a uh a march from the Vietnam Veterans Memorial towards the Capitol.
Just a beautiful show of our support because this is the right guy.
We need somebody who understands the warfighter and is going to bring it back to a status of lethality where people aren't afraid to join the military because of some transgender thing or they're gonna have some weird vaccine shoved in them.
Just want to get out there and serve our country.
Plain and simple.
And Pete can bring that to us.
Quick break.
We'll come right back.
We'll continue.
Navy SEALs, Rob Sweetman and Bill Brown, who showed up in favor of Pete Heggseth at the hearing earlier today.
More with them on the other side.
We'll get to your calls coming up.
Rand Paul also as well.
800 941 Shauna's on number as we continue.
The final hour of the Sean Hannity show is up next.
Hang on for Sean's conservative solutions.
Music Alright, we continue now.
Navy SEALs, Rob Sweetman, Bill Brown, and many others showing up in support of Pete Heggseth at the hearings earlier today.
Bill, what's your take on what the events today?
And what was your take too on the superfluous personal questioning and the lack of substance by so many of these people?
Well, you know, if you don't have a point, that's what you do.
You become a drive McQueen.
You know, we were the adults in the room.
We were the adults in the uh the confirmation hearings.
We were the adults out here in the uh where we did our march.
We were, you know, we held the moral high ground.
there's a serious problem, a lack of judgment.
We congrats on investigations to anybody who had any type of decision-making power.
Up to that.
You know, I look at I look at where we need to prioritize.
I am so worried about this military gap of vulnerability and not being prepared for the next generation of warfare.
Bill, when when I talk about that, am I wrong?
Uh because I feel like we've fallen behind, and I feel like if China and Russia have weaponry that we don't have, uh, you know, that scares me.
The amount of investment is gonna be massive.
Um I want the best and brightest minds on it.
Uh I think artificial intelligence, we better stay Ahead of the curve of our geopolitical foes or else they'll surpass us very, very quickly.
Uh, do you feel that we are that we're achieving military preparedness at the level we need to, and do you agree with me that the next generation of warfare is likely going to be fought in an air conditioned room.
We have there's two things you need to be successful in war.
One is the tactical advantage, and two is discipline.
And guess what?
You can't have discipline when you don't have accountability.
You saw the fiasco in Afghanistan.
The spy balloon over sensitive military installations.
Yeah.
We got a lot of noise in the background.
Rob Sweetman, let me go back to you.
Same question.
Oh, yeah.
Yeah, I absolutely think that the warfare is changing.
And um we're going to have to address that aggressively.
If we're falling behind with bureaucratic policies and basically politicians that are leading the warfighter, then we're going to be two steps behind when we are facing an actual first world threat.
I I hope and I pray that we never go to war at that level.
But when Are we ready?
Are we really ready for that?
And I think that taking a look at the choices that we've made recently, leaving behind military equipment at that level while continuing to support Taliban, you know, fundamentally with finances.
And then just leaving the border wide open so we don't even have a checks and balances on who's coming across and who's who's I mean, what are our threats?
We were just talking about uh small militarized portable weapon systems that could be brought over the border.
What if that happened?
What are we going to do?
And I think that the Pentagon has a responsibility to take a look at um all of these threats, and it's not going to be somebody who is, I would say, in an air-conditioned room.
It's going to be somebody who's aggressive, full of energy, can show us leadership and vision, somebody that the warfighters can get behind, whether it's digitally with drones or on the ground.
Boots on ground.
Well, you're always going to need intelligence on the ground.
You're always going to need some boots on the ground, but I do believe technology now is advancing to a point where the real victory in warfare is going to be it's it's it's going to be technology and it's going to be the ability to hit targets with pinpoint accuracy by pressing buttons in offices.
I really believe that.
And I also believe that President Trump's vision for you know the biggest iron dome ever created by man to protect the entire country from hypersonic hypersonic technology is going to be a big part of it too, and it may even go down as his greatest legacy.
Guys, I'm glad you showed up there today.
Navy SEALs, Rob Sweetman, Bill Brown, appreciate you both.
800-941 Sean, if you want to be a part of the program.
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