All Episodes
Previous Next
Jan. 16, 2025 - Sean Hannity Show
30:20
Liberals vs. Pam Bondi - January 15th, Hour 3
| Copy link to current segment

Time Text
This is an iHeart podcast.
Stay right here for our final news roundup and information overload.
All right, news roundup, information overload hour.
Our toll-free number is 800-941-Sean.
If you want to be a part of the program, Senator Rubio, his confirmation hearings beginning today.
Similarly, Pam Bondi and her confirmation hearings, John Ratcliffe, his confirmation hearings.
You know, the idea is once Donald Trump is sworn in, you want the Senate to have the votes, and then the president will have the cabinet that he wants and that he frankly deserves from day one so they can get the job done.
In spite of all of the distractions that they threw in place yesterday and the lack of substance when it comes to Pete Hagseth, I would expect that he is going to pretty much scroll through.
The issue of weaponization came up in Pam Bondi's hearing today, and I thought it was very interesting because she said she will restore confidence and integrity to the DOJ and that partisanship and weaponization will be gone.
And then she testified to Sheldon Whitehouse, the DOJ won't have an enemies list.
I would argue under Merritt Garland, it did.
And that enemy was Donald Trump.
And then she further went on to tell Sheldon Whitehouse the problems about weaponization and what happened to Donald Trump.
Listen.
Would you have hired someone into the Florida Attorney General's office who you knew had an enemies list?
Senator, to cut to the chase, you're clearly talking about Kash Patel.
I don't believe he has an enemies list.
He made a quote on TV, which I have not heard.
I saw your sign or Senator Durvin's sign about Cash, but I know that Kash Patel has had 60 jury trials as a public defender, as a prosecutor.
He has great experience in the Intel Department, Department of Defense.
I have known Cash, and I believe that Cash is the right person at this time for this job.
You'll have the ability to question Mr. Patel.
And I'm questioning you right now about whether you will enforce an enemies list that he announced publicly on television.
Oh, Senator, I'm sorry.
There will never be an enemies list within the Department of Justice.
Thank you.
It would not be appropriate for a prosecutor to start with a name and look for a crime.
It's a prosecutor's job to start with a crime and look for a name, correct?
Senator, I think that is the whole problem with the weaponization that we have seen the last four years and what's been happening to Donald Trump.
They targeted Donald Trump.
They went after him, actually starting back in 2016.
They targeted his campaign.
They have launched countless investigations against him.
That will not be the case if I am Attorney General.
I will not politicize that office.
I will not target people simply because of their political affiliation.
Justice will be administered even-handedly throughout this country.
Senator, we've got to bring this country back together.
We've got to move forward.
Now, I love how Pam did flip the script on Sheldon Whitehouse.
Here's the problem with his line of questioning.
He never once that I know of, or neither have any of his Democratic colleagues, ever spoken out about the weaponization of the DOJ under Joe Biden.
They never did it one single time.
Nobody's ever been held accountable for FISA abuse.
Nobody was ever, ever, ever questioned the double standard in rating Mar-a-Lago.
You know, Donald Trump was covered by the Presidential Records Act, but Joe Biden was not.
He had top secret classified information in four separate locations.
Never once was the same rules of justice applied to Hillary Clinton, top secret, classified information on her servers.
33,000 subpoenaed emails deleted and devices destroyed and SIM cards removed.
The dirty Russian disinformation dossier she paid for had turned out to be full of lies and garbage that was used not for one, but for four FISA applications.
And Christopher Steele, even after they're fired, they still use that dirty dossier and they were warned ahead of time not to touch it.
Nobody was ever held accountable with the weaponization of the DOJ, how the FBI and our intelligence community has been politicized.
And I think one of the biggest challenges Donald Trump will face is firing a lot of people.
Those people in the deep state, those people who have loyalties to the likes of Comey and Ray and Merrick Garland and Brennan and Clapper and others that are, frankly, up to their eyeballs as far as I'm concerned in a lot of what never should have happened and never should be allowed to happen in this country.
And what this really comes down to is Democrats now fear that which they did to Donald Trump and his associates and his friends will be done to them.
Let's see how many preemptive pardons Joe Biden gives to people on the way out the door.
I doubt he'll mention this in his farewell address tonight.
But let's see where we are by Sunday night.
800-941-Shauna's on number if you want to be a part of the program.
Brett Tolman, former federal prosecutor is here with his take on the confirmation hearings.
You know, I went into great detail earlier with Bill O'Reilly about Pete Hegseth and how the complete lack of substance.
We didn't talk about the next generation of warfare.
We didn't talk about the gap of vulnerability when it comes to military technology.
We didn't talk about recruitment problems we have.
We didn't talk about eliminating woke and the DEI from the Department of Defense, using our money more efficiently.
None of that was a topic of discussion.
Democrats just revert to form, and they went to identity politics, women in combat, and Pete Hegset's personal life from a decade ago, which is very predictable.
But with all that said, I don't really see a problem for any of these nominees in terms of getting confirmed.
Do you?
Yeah, Sean, you know, before I was U.S. Attorney, I was lead counsel on several attorneys general and their confirmation hearings from Ashcroft and Gonzalez and Casey.
And I'll tell you, we're used to absurd hypocrisy from the left.
This is a new level.
It's a new level when you, you know, the highlight you played from White House, it actually is the perfect capture of the left unwilling to look at where they've been, what they've been doing, all the weaponization, the abuse that they've used.
And for those of us that have been in the department, we have been screaming it.
You've been screaming it.
We've been highlighting all of this.
And finally, finally, we have a moment and an opportunity with Pam Bondi, with Kash Patel, John Ratcliffe, with all this A team that is being put together, highly credible, incredibly qualified.
They will get in there and they will do a phenomenal job of actually exposing what has gone on that all of us have known.
I think they'll get confirmed.
I know that I've had even conversations with senators and individuals on the left who have indicated these are really qualified candidates that have been put up there.
I think none finer than what Attorney General Pam Bonnie did today.
I thought, Pam Bondi, I felt like even Democrats are going to be voting for Marco Rubio.
I thought John Ratcliffe went very, very smooth.
I mean, I expect a little bit of pushback when it comes to Kash Patel and to Tulsi Gabbard and Robert O. Kennedy Jr.
I mean, a lot of this is very predictable, but Democrats revert to form.
I already know the answers.
For example, I was talking about this with Bill O'Reilly.
He's worried about RFK Jr.
and his chances.
I'm like, well, I've spent a lot of time talking to him.
You know, while the Democrats and, you know, the people at the Conspiracy Theory Network, MSDNC and fake news CNN are out there lying and saying that he's going to take away the polio vaccine.
That's not true.
What he's going to do is provide people non-pharmaceutical industry information about health so that they can make their own choice and decision.
He's not going to lie to the country the way we were lied to about COVID and about the vaccine, that if you got the shot, you're never going to get COVID and you're never going to infect anybody else, which they knew from the beginning was a lie.
Or their attacks against any of the various treatment methods that in the end, numerous studies have shown, for example, hydroxychloroquine taken early mitigates a lot of the symptoms of COVID.
Nobody wants to talk about that.
Or the fact that monoclonal antibodies actually did work, but they never got in the business of mass producing them to the extent that they should have, starting with Regeneron.
So, you know, he's not going to take away people's choices.
He's not going to take away Donald Trump's McDonald's.
He's not going to take away Donald Trump's Kentucky Fried Chicken.
He's not going to take away his Diet Coke.
He's not going to take away his pizza.
It's not going to happen.
And if you listen to the left-wing media, you know, you would think he's going to do all those things, nor is he going to do anything on the issue of abortion, which some conservatives are concerned about, except follow through on what the president's policy is, because he's not the president.
The president sets policy.
I haven't heard, Sean, I haven't heard one single disqualifying fact on any of the candidates, and that's what has to be revealed.
Is there a disqualifying fact, something in their background that would disqualify them and result in a Senate not confirming?
Because there is a presumption that the president gets his cabinet if they are qualified, and that's all that's been put in front of the Senate.
Listen, I think the person they're going to go after the hardest is Kash Patel.
They don't like Cash.
Cash knows where all the bodies are buried in terms of the deep state.
I think he has every intention of cleaning it out.
And what that really means for the average American is he will restore what was once the world's premier law enforcement agency back to its former greatness.
That would be a good thing, you know, to hear Christopher Wray one more time go before Congress.
The threat level's never been so high, but never lifting a finger to enforce the laws of our country and secure the border, even though Joe Biden was not securing the border.
It was a dereliction of duty to me.
And the fact that we have known terrorists, murderers, rapists, we have gang members, cartel members in our country.
Now we have to find them and deport them, which is going to cost a fortune.
And he never lifted a finger is unconscionable to me.
Well, you're right.
You know who's most excited about Kash Patel coming in besides the American people?
the rank and file members of the FBI.
They have spent decades seeing the politicization, being pulled off of important violent gang task forces, being pulled off of enforcing against sex trafficking and human trafficking.
They've experienced nothing but being told the direction they had to go in that was not consistent with what it means to keep America safe.
And so those agents, you talk to them and they're saying, we can't wait for things to be exposed for a leader that says, get back in there with your state and local law enforcement and work together and let's make America safe and let's clean up, you know, this problem that we have in America.
Let's restore law and order and let's restore these agencies to their former greatness.
Anyway, Brett, appreciate you being with us.
800-941 Sean, we got time for a quick call.
Let us say hi to Dwayne in Wisconsin.
Hey, Dwayne, how are you?
Glad you called.
We love our friends in Wisconsin.
I know it's cold up there today.
I don't get cold in Wisconsin.
Green Bay Packers, I'll go out there.
I'll sit in the stands with my shirt off like some other people.
I'm too old for that.
I don't take my shirt off until it's shower time.
But I had a real quick question on all of this with Biden leaving and throwing these blanket pardons out.
What are the parameters of a blanket pardon?
I mean, does this mean that they can only be prosecuted if it happened outside what they've already established as a crime?
Or does this mean that they're not?
Honestly, this aspect of the power of the pardon has never been tested.
However, I would imagine that there's going to be a lot of leeway given to Joe Biden or any president because the power of the pardon is absolute.
And if the president wants to preemptively pardon his brother, maybe himself, maybe Liz Cheney, maybe Anthony Fauci, maybe Benny Thompson and whoever else, then I would argue he probably has the ability to do it.
I don't think the Supreme Court would want to get deep in the weeds as to what that absolute power is defined by.
To me, that sounds almost as if it's King Joey is saying, here's your absolution.
You go out and shoot somebody now because you are pardoned for life.
It just, it makes no sense and it can't be.
No, it only extends to the date of the pardon.
It doesn't mean the next day you can go out and shoot somebody.
But if you shot somebody prior to that, then you, again, if you put the dates in like you did in the Hunter Biden pardon, in that case, it would be relevant to the timeframe that he puts into the pardon.
So it's not like you can go out the next day and start being a drug dealer and stealing and murdering and being involved in violent crimes.
That wouldn't work.
Anyway, I hope that answers your question, Dwayne.
Love our friends in Wisconsin.
All right, quick break, right back.
Hey there.
I'm Mary Catherine Ham, 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, 25 now till the top of the hour, 800-941.
Sean, if you want to be a part of the program, it's so pathetic that the current president of our country announced two hours after Donald Trump, because it was Donald Trump's team that negotiated this epic ceasefire as it relates to Israel and the release of hostages.
Why do you think these hostages were released?
Why do you think the first release will be on Sunday, the day before the inauguration?
Why were the hostages in Iran released in 1981 just as Ronald Reagan was becoming president?
Because they saw Jimmy Carter as weak, just like they see Joe Biden as weak, and they feared Reagan, and they feared Donald Trump.
Anyway, the first phase of the hostage deal will include the release of female Israeli soldiers.
The hostages held by Hamas are expected to be released over a number of days, and they have now reached a ceasefire deal to release these hostages.
Is it ever a fair deal for Israel?
No.
Is it a fair deal that we're getting these hostages back, that it takes Donald Trump's threat to unleash hell to get them back?
No.
How is it that Donald Trump announces this two hours before our very own president?
The epic ceasefire agreement could have only happened as a result of our historic victory in November as it signaled to the entire world my administration would seek peace, negotiate deals to ensure the safety of all Americans and our allies.
I'm thrilled.
American and Israeli hostages will be returning home to be reunited with their families and loved ones.
With this deal in place, my national security team, through the efforts of special envoy to the Middle East, Steve Witkoff, will all continue to work closely with Israel and our allies to make sure Gaza never again becomes a terrorist safe haven.
We will continue promoting peace through strength throughout the entire region as we build upon the momentum of this ceasefire to further expand the historic Abraham Accords.
Now, this is only the beginning of great things to come for America and indeed for the world.
You know, we have achieved so much without even being in the White House.
Imagine all the wonderful things that will happen when I return to the White House and my administration is fully confirmed so they can secure more victories for the U.S. Anyway, so the historic deal goes through, but it was Steve Witkoff, who on his own dime, because he's not officially in the government yet, he happens to be a successful, wealthy businessman, was flying himself back and forth to the Middle East over and over again.
But it was Trump's word that he's going to unleash hell if, in fact, this did not happen before his inauguration.
And then two hours later, out comes Joe Biden with his announcement.
I'm like, oh, gee, thanks, Joe.
Really appreciate it.
Anyway, let's get to our busy phones here.
All right, let's get to our busy phones.
Let's go to Wanda in Tennessee.
Wanda, hi, how are you?
Glad you called.
Thank you.
I actually was about Pete Hegset.
I just wanted to say as a female and a mother of a son who's in Kuwait at the moment, I wanted to apologize to Mr. Hagseth because the ladies that he had to deal with yesterday from the other side were just horrible people.
Horrible.
They made women look bad.
I felt like I was very angry listening to them.
By the way, how many times did he have to answer the question of women in combat when he gave a simple answer, very understandable, that, yeah, he supports women in combat as long as the standards for everybody is equal?
You don't want to lower standards for anybody for any reason.
And I felt that that was the perfect answer.
No, they treated him horribly.
I talked to him last night.
He was fine.
He knew all of it was coming.
All of it was predictable.
And the sad thing is, is they didn't focus on what they should have been focused on, the next generation of warfare, how America's falling behind in military technology, how to rebuild our Navy and our Air Force and what this new generation of weaponry will be, the Iron Dome that Donald Trump has been talking about building and much, much more.
They didn't want to talk about any of that.
Yeah, no, they just wanted their moment.
But yes, I was very upset all day.
And I worked, and I was listening to it on my serious radio, but I was upset all day.
Even when I went home, I just let my husband have it.
I was just so angry.
So you took it out on your husband?
That was not nice.
He just had to stand there and listen.
Well, that's different from taking it out on him.
You just vent it to him.
That's very different.
That's okay.
You're allowed to vent to the people you love.
No problem.
No.
All right, Wanda.
We love our friends in Tennessee.
Thank you.
Let us get to our phones.
Jeff in Florida, my free state.
What's up, Jeff?
How are you?
Glad you called, sir.
I'm good, Sean.
I appreciate you taking me.
I just am a huge fan of listening to you every day.
Thank you.
I was very much concerned with the drone situation, which seems like it's been kind of downplayed in the last couple of weeks.
I just don't understand why if the FBI or the CIA isn't going to shoot one down just to figure out who it is, where it is, China, Russia, very disturbing.
It seems to me that we used to trust the FBI.
We used to trust the CIA as Americans.
These days, with the shady stuff that's happening, it really makes me wonder, sir.
Makes me wonder.
The good news is next Monday, Donald Trump will be in office.
I'm not sure when he will do this, but he is committed to getting us the truth about those drones.
And I want to get the truth about the drones.
If they didn't shoot it out of the sky, that tells me they know exactly what this was all about.
And they frankly lied to us like they lied about Joe's cognitive state, like they lied about the borders being secure, like they lied about the economy.
I mean, they've lied pretty much about everything.
And now they're trying to sabotage Donald Trump on his way in as they now leave the White House.
But they said they would make sure it was going to be a smooth transition.
Now, they're doing everything to sabotage him on the way in.
Anyway, I appreciate the call, Jim.
We will get that answer.
I also hope that Donald Trump opens up the files to the JFK assassination.
I hope he opens up the files to the RFK assassination.
I hope he opens up the files about our UFOs real?
I mean, those are questions that just I would like to, I'd like to know what the government knows.
I believe in full transparency.
I don't think the American people are so brittle that they can't handle it.
And that seems to be the approach of the nanny state leftists, that they want to control every aspect of our lives.
Jason, California, next Sean Hannity show.
Hey, Jason, how are you?
I'm doing fine, Sean.
Thank you very much for taking my call.
Very sorry for what's going on out there.
I feel bad for everybody that is suffering.
I would argue, you know, all of this is preventable.
What's on your mind today?
I'm a certified arborist that's done Fire damage assessments in California from Southern California all the way up to Northern California over the past few years.
And the biggest complaint I hear from homeowners, because that's who I represent, is that the state dropped the ball completely.
They ask the property owners to do their line of defense, you know, their make their properties safe from fire.
They ask people to conserve on water and all that.
And the citizens here, the property owners have done that, yet the state has failed totally in offering their support.
They're more of a reactive instead of proactive mind thought.
So I've been doing this for many years, and they have the state has just dropped the ball.
I was in La Conchita doing a survey of an orchard, and I'm talking with the property owner, and they're in the drought season.
And the property owner was telling me the state won't let them use this reservoir that's right above their property to irrigate their farms in a time of drought.
Yet.
Well, by the way, this wasn't even a drought year, my understanding, in California.
So I'm not exactly sure what they're talking about.
Well, the state actually does runoff from these water-holding areas into the ocean, but they won't let the farmers use this water.
They pour more fresh water into the Pacific than anybody ever knows, rather than diverting it to Southern California, which is prone to droughts.
And there's no explanation as to why.
You said you're an arborist.
Did you know in 2019, the LA Department of Water and Power began replacing nearly 100-year-old power lines, which was a smart idea, through Topanga State Park when the project was halted within days because of environmentalists.
They were outraged that the federally endangered Broughtons milk vetch plants had been trampled during the process.
Do you know what those plants are?
Well, I know they're a California native, and I'm very, very familiar with a lot of California native plants.
And that's fine.
And they will.
It doesn't seem like a particularly beautiful plant to me.
Most California have their season, but the rest of the year, they're just, you know, why don't the environmentalists go out there?
And if they want to, you know, dig up these plants from underneath the roots and replant them elsewhere, I'm all for it if they want to take the time to do it.
But, you know, the reason that they needed to update the infrastructure out there was to prevent fires like they just had in the Pacific Palisades.
I mean, if you actually look at the real reason behind this, it just makes a lot of sense.
And the goal of the project was specifically for the Pacific Palisades to replace wooden poles with steel widening and also widening fire access lanes in the area and installing wind and fire resistant power lines for the area because of the elevated fire risk.
But the only reason it got stopped was because of the Broughton milk vetch plants.
Does that make any sense to you?
Sort of like the Delta smelt.
No, they get the water, but the farmers in the San Joaquin Valley get nothing.
That is correct.
When I moved here in 1978, there was a slogan that they had.
If it's yellow, let it mellow.
If it's brown, splush it down.
And they have never done anything since then to increase our water holding capacities, to capture rain, water, to save water for use in emergencies.
It's beyond stupid on every level.
I mean, they have enough water in Northern California.
They could easily create transportation lanes down to Southern California.
By the way, we do need to give a shout out.
Elon Musk is using Tesla Cybertrucks and Starlink technology, providing free internet to the areas devastated by these wildfires.
And he did put a post up that said apologies to those expecting cybertruck deliveries in California over the next few days.
We need to use those trucks as mobile base stations to provide power to Starlink internet terminals in areas of L.A. without connectivity, and a new truck will be delivered by the end of the week.
Now, as he's rushing to do that, the Biden SEC, last minute, has decided to sue Elon Musk.
He's offering all of this free of charge to L.A. residents, and they filed a lawsuit against Elon, accusing him of violating securities laws by failing to disclose his active stake in Twitter, which allowed him to purchase shares at artificially low prices.
800-941-Sean is a number if you want to be a part of the program.
So we have the big hostage release announcement from earlier today, at least temporary ceasefire.
Donald Trump will be in power on Monday.
Obviously, that was a big part of the reason why Hamas and I'm sure Iran, with their wink and nod, said okay to release these hostages.
All right, that's going to wrap things up for today.
Explosive hearings.
Pam Bondi taking it to the Democrats in the U.S. Senate.
We'll get reactions.
Senator Ron Johnson, Senator Ted Cruz, Rick Scott, Eric Schmidt.
Also, a Hannity shootout.
It is back.
We'll check in with a Peter spokesperson.
Where do you hear what they're up to these days?
And Jillia Michaels, yeah, Red Dye 3.
Oh, let's pan it just a few days before we leave office.
Let's get a jump on Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
Unbelievable.
Nine Eastern, Hannity, Set EDVR, Fox News.
We'll see you tonight.
Back here tomorrow.
We are one day closer to this long national nightmare being over.
▲
Export Selection