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Jan. 17, 2025 - Sean Hannity Show
30:23
Truth on Hostage Negotiations - January 16th, Hour 3
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If you want to be a part of the program, even Joe Biden insiders, according to the New York Post, are admitting, even his own State Department admitted that it took President-elect Donald Trump wading into this conflict in the Middle East and Israel versus Hamas to close the deal and get a deal to free these hostages.
Finally, we're getting that done.
It can't be done soon enough as far as I'm concerned.
Although Joe Biden yesterday was asked a question about it, here's what he said.
Thank you.
Is that a joke?
Oh, thank you.
Is that a joke?
No, that's not a joke that would be called the truth because there was nothing Joe Biden was doing the entire time except trying to pressure Israel not to fight back, even when ballistic missiles were being fired directly from Iran into Israel as they continue to fund terror.
They help plan, plot, scheme, organize, provide the weaponry for October 7th and what happened in 2023 to Hamas in Gaza.
They've been funding and providing weaponry to Hezbollah and the Islamic Jihad out of Lebanon.
They've been funding and providing weaponry to the Houthi rebels.
And, you know, it just goes on and on and on.
Now, when asked about this, Qatar, which had been involved and very involved in this deal, as well as Donald Trump's special envoy to the Middle East, Steve Witkoff, you know, the prime minister of Qatar was very clear that it was the Trump administration, the incoming Trump administration, that helped this deal occur.
And it had everything to do with what Donald Trump said.
You, as you say, have been working on this deal for many months.
And the question is, why now?
Why this moment?
And was it pressure from the incoming Trump administration that got it over the line?
Thank you.
Well, thank you very much, Ilde, for this question.
Actually, we've been raising the question of the right moment for the entire period since the collapse of the first phase.
But we have seen a momentum that started to build in the last month, and we kept pushing for that, working together very closely with our partners.
And I can say that what we have seen in the past few days, seeing a collaboration transcending both administration was a clear demonstration for the commitment of the U.S. to reach to that deal.
And I really would like to thank both the envoys who are here with us in the last couple of days.
And they played a vital role in reaching to this moment.
Uh-huh.
Let's go back and remind everybody that it was Donald Trump just a couple of weeks ago vowing that all hell will break out in the region if Hamas hostages are not released before he takes office.
It's not an accident that it's happening the day before he gets sworn into office.
Listen.
All hell must be paid if they don't release the hostages.
Well, do I have to define it for you?
Look, all hell will break out.
If those hostages aren't back, I don't want to hurt your negotiation.
If they're not back by the time I get into office, all hell will break out in the Middle East.
And it will not be good for Hamas, and it will not be good, frankly, for anyone.
All hell will break out.
I don't have to say anymore, but that's what it is.
And they should have given him back a long time.
They should have never taken them.
They should have never been the attack of October 7th.
People forget that.
Anyway, the Hamas lead ceasefire negotiator actually praised the October 7th attack, vowing to continue in their war.
Remember, their charter calls for the destruction of Israel.
Our people will expel the occupation from our land and from Jerusalem at the earliest possible time.
Now, do I like this particular deal?
No.
Do I understand why this deal is being made?
I do.
Because the people of Israel put such a high value on every single human life.
And the Prime Minister of Qatar confirming 33 of these hostages, they've been there, what, 446 days, almost like it's eerily like, you know, when Ronald Reagan was coming into office, 444 days, they were held hostage.
But you got 33 hostages that will be released, and Israel will release about 2,000 convicted terrorists.
And do I think that's fair?
No, I don't.
Do I think it should be a one-to-one ratio?
I do.
Do I understand why Israel is making the decision?
I do, although Prime Minister Netanyahu has delayed the ceasefire deal, accusing Hamas of trying to back out.
If they back out, that's fine.
Then all hell will break out in the Middle East.
And Donald Trump is absolutely, positively going to be the person that does it.
Joining us now to react to all of this is Caroline Glick is with us, senior contributing editor and host of the Caroline Glitch Show.
And anyway, it's great to have you back, Caroline.
Welcome back to the program.
Thanks so much for having me your program, Sean.
It's always great to be with you.
Is there any chance this deal ever would have occurred had Donald Trump not made that threat?
Well, no, I think that Israel wasn't expecting that pressure would be brought to bear on Israel to make the deal.
And so by Trump's Middle East envoy the way that it was.
And the expectation was that when hell breaks loose in Gaza, that Israel would be able to achieve its military objectives and also get a deal that would require far less concessions from Israel for the release of the hostages, just as occurred in November of last year or of 2023 when we had the initial hostage release.
And so I think there is a lot of surprise in Israel that the pressure that was brought to bear was brought to bear on Israel to make the deal.
But having said that, no, there wasn't any chance that the deal would have been made with Biden while he was.
I think there's going to be a follow-up to this and let my knowledge of Donald Trump play, give you some insight into where I believe he's ultimately going here.
I do believe that Donald Trump understands the importance that Gaza must forever be demilitarized.
I think that is imperative.
The only party that has any credibility in that is Israel.
All the other parties, Qatar is Hamas.
They've been feeding and watering and enabling the armament of Hamas, and they've been serving it.
No, these Hamas leaders have been living high on the Hog in these extravagant hotels in Qatar.
There's no doubt about it.
Right.
And Egypt, of course, allowed Hamas to transfer massive quantities of weapons across the border through tunnels, 10 tunnels that we found for weapons smuggling along the perimeter between Gaza and Egypt in the Sinai.
So there is no military force that can demilitarize Gaza except for the IDF.
And one of the problems is that Israel isn't in war just because it feels like it.
We're in a war for our survival.
So there's a big fear among a lot of people who love President Trump that this deal is not going to, that Israel has been pressured to make this deal and that there's an expectation that this is a ceasefire, that this is a permanent ceasefire.
And that's not how Israel sees it.
We see this as the partial achievement of one of our war goals, which is bringing back the hostages.
But the two other goals of the war are the eradication of Hamas as a military and political entity in Gaza and the prevention of Gaza ever becoming a threat to Israel in any way, shape, or form in the future.
And so those two goals have to be achieved and they're undermined by achieving the release of the hostages.
So it's, you know, people are looking to hear something very clear from Trump that he recognizes and supports Israel's war goals.
We've heard that from his national security advisor, Michael Waltz.
But the president himself has said things that are less clear-cut, and that's something that a lot of Israelis, particularly government ministers, are looking to hear from President Trump.
All right, quick break, final moments with Caroline Glick on the other side.
Then your call's coming up, 800-941-Sean.
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We continue now with Caroline Glick, senior contributing editor-host of the Caroline Glick Show.
He hasn't said it recently, but he has said it in previous interviews with me that Israel has every right to win its war against radical Islamic terrorism and the people responsible for October 7th.
And he just said, I would urge them to win it quickly.
In other words, to unleash hell and win the war.
You know, the message that you were getting from the Biden administration was to forever show restraint and not to go into, for example, you mentioned Egypt and Rafah, where you are absolutely correct about the tunnels there.
And, you know, what did they find?
Three, four, five hundred tunnels from Gaza into Israel, terror tunnels.
I had been in some of these terror tunnels.
I know what they're like.
I know how sophisticated they are.
This is money that was given by the U.S. and by Israel and by other countries so that they could build out infrastructure and schools and hospitals.
But no, they use it to foment hatred and terror, acting also on the interests of Iran, which we could deal with separately here.
But Israel absolutely has the right to win their war against radical Islamic terrorists and those that aid and abet them.
Now, in the first Trump administration, there was such an alliance that I discussed, and there was a lot of intelligence sharing.
And that was the U.S., Egypt, that was Israel, that was the Saudis, the Emirates, and the Jordanians.
I do believe that every one of those countries has their own interest in preventing Iran, which is the head of the snake and the number one state sponsor of terror, from ever getting close to a nuclear weapon, which, according to reports, they are getting close to it.
Right.
Thanks to the Biden administration for not enforcing the sanctions that the Trump administration placed on Iran.
Joe Biden made the Iranians rich.
Well, they sure did.
He sure did.
But all I was going to say was that, you know, I agree with you with everything that you've said.
And there's light years basically between the alliance that Israel enjoyed with the United States under the first Trump administration and the very frigid relationship that we had with the Biden administration, which did not share our war goals of eradicating Hamas and preventing Gaza from posing a military threat to us.
They only sought the release of the hostages.
So the concern here in Israel is that the hostage deal, which is requiring Israel to remove its forces from key strategic areas that we won with the blood of our soldiers over the past 15 years of war,
we're supposed to leave them for six weeks, particularly the Netzarim corridor that bifurcates Gaza and allow the civilians who support Hamas to return to their towns, which is very dangerous.
And so there's a lot of concern about the strategic implications for Israel of this deal.
And that's why it's so important to hear, in my opinion, a very clear statement from Trump that he continues to stand by the positions that he so forthrightly declared repeatedly over the past 15 months that Israel should win the war and that he expects Israel to win the war and that he supports Israel's war goals.
I'll tell you where I am, and I don't think we're on a different page.
If in the aftermath of this deal, after the hostage situation is resolved, in the aftermath, at that point, if Hamas, Hezbollah, and the Houthi rebels, all funded and aided by Iran, continue their reign of terror, I think at that point you unleash hell and you win the war and you obliterate your enemy.
That's all that's the only way to do it.
I mean, that's what the United States would do because on October 7th, Israel lost the equivalent of what would have been, based on population size, 40,000 Americans.
No, I mean, you can't unsee what we saw on October 7th.
And I think that's why, while there is overwhelming public support for the hostage release, again, this is one of the three war goals.
You know, Israelis have been praying for the return of our hostages three times a day, you know, every day since October 7th.
But this is a war for our national survival, and we have to win it.
We don't have a choice.
And so that's why there is an enormous amount of apprehension here.
And also, you know, political instability as a result of this deal, because people understand that we fight with this kind of determination because we know that everything's on the line.
And it's not because Gaza today is an existential threat to Israel.
It's because Gaza has become a symbol for global jihad.
And it's not only here, it's throughout the world.
So that if Hamas is going to be able to proclaim victory by surviving, which is all they need to do to win, then that's going to be a beacon for jihadists in America, in Latin America, in Europe, throughout the world, because they're going to say, look, we're winning.
And that's why it's essential not only for Israel's national security, but for America's national security.
All right, quick break, final moments with Caroline Glick on the other side.
Then your call is coming up straight ahead.
800-94-1 Sean, if you want to be a part of the program.
All right, 25 now to the top of the hour.
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All right, our final moments with Caroline Glick, JNS Senior Contributing Editor, host of the Caroline Glick Show, about the hostage negotiations.
And I want to be clear here.
I don't like this deal.
I don't like it at all.
And I think there is way more leverage with Donald Trump saying that all hell is going to break loose in the Middle East if these hostages are not released by Inauguration Day.
And if it comes down to that and ending radical Islamic terrorism and helping Israel in their war against radical Islamists and getting to the head of the snake, Iran, I'll be fine with that outcome too.
Because Joe Biden's weakness, not enforcing the sanctions, caused all of this to begin with.
Anyway, we continue with Caroline Glick.
I have one more question.
I agree with everything that you're saying.
And this is a very tough decision to make.
He'd take the bad deal.
I would imagine, just like Democrats, they will revert to form.
They're not going to give up their radicalism.
And then you will finish the job.
And they won't have any leverage at that point in terms of holding these hostages as leverage over Israel and any military moves that they might make.
And Israel, by the way, has done a great job of rescuing many of them.
And a lot of those stories have not even been told.
But Caroline Glick, we have to run.
We do appreciate you.
Our prayers are with the people of Israel.
And let's hope the right solution comes into our sight and this can be put to an end and radical Islamic terrorism ends once and for all and is defeated because it's not going to go away on its own.
Can I just make one last point, Sean, just real quick?
I think hello?
Go ahead.
Why, you know, one of the reasons why there's so much support in Israel for something that on the face of it is a bad deal is because of the leadership of Prime Minister Netanyahu.
This Prime Minister has shown an unrelenting determination to win this war in a way that is just awe-inspiring.
And so if he says that we have to do this deal, people are willing to take it on his word because he has shown that metal and he's been churchillan in his leadership of the country.
But, you know, he's been really doing it on his own against the wishes oftentimes of the Biden administration, which is why I think people are really looking for a clear statement now from our friends who are taking office on Monday.
He showed it in his first term.
I believe he will be unwavering like he was the first time, the second time.
That's my prediction.
Anyway, we do appreciate your time.
Caroline Glick, thank you, Senior Contributing Editor, host of the Caroline Glick Show.
All right, let's get to our busy phones, 800-941 Sean is on number.
If you want to be a part of the program, Eric in Pennsylvania.
Eric, hi, how are you?
Glad you called.
Mr. Hennedy.
What's going on, sir?
How are you?
How are you doing, sir?
I've been a longtime listener.
My first time heard you when you were filling in for Rush Limbaugh, when he was having his cancer treatment, and I listened to your show.
As a truck driver, I was, you know, radius against a little modinist, so I listened to the politics and stuff like that.
So I kind of fell in love with your show, and I've been since today on.
Thank you for all your hard work that you guys do.
I know it's not just you, it's your whole team that does a lot.
But my question to you, I'm also a volunteer firefighter.
Why can't they bring tankers out to Florida or California and bring where there were into the fire?
It's a fire tanker brigade.
You can bring 50 tankers out there, and I guarantee you could not put that fire out before you have two beds.
Well, I mean, what we learned today about the fire is it just frankly makes me angrier and angrier and angrier.
Now, I know that Gavin Newson ordered that California flags be raised to full staff for Trump's inauguration.
Okay, well, put one in the column.
But that's not what we learned today.
You know, now we are learning that a lot of the trucks, there were only five out of 40 trucks, which is unimaginable to me, that were actually deployed prior, you know, as the Pacific Palisades fire was erupting.
In other words, the Pacific Palisades Fire Department, you know, they didn't send their full fleet of trucks in there.
They only sent five out of 40 available fire engines, holding back a thousand firefighters, according to a damning new report that came out.
And just like hydrants not working and a reservoir being empty, and then learning that the brush wasn't cleared because of a plant that they felt they needed to protect and radical environmentalism.
There's just zero, absolutely zero excuse for anything.
And it shows up in a poll that came out.
And Californians, you know, 47% of Californians think that Gavin Newsom is a great deal responsible or somewhat responsible for the damage left by the flames.
38% think Newsom is not at all responsible.
And this is a very liberal state that liked Gavin Newsom.
And Los Angeles wirefires now spark an initial round of lawsuits against utilities.
And this is going to be a mess probably for a decade, to be very honest, for a long period of time.
It's just, and all of it was preventable.
It breaks my heart to see all these people lose their livelihood, you know?
I mean, it's devastating that there's no fire.
Maybe they lose a life without that whole deal.
You know, it's chaos out there.
I don't know.
I think somebody should go to jail for that.
That's just my opinion.
But again, Mr. Heinz, thank you for all you do for our American people.
You're the peaking of hope.
I think Rush, we keep giving you kudos for that because you're the one that keeps giving us the hope that we.
Well, we missed the great Rush Limbaugh.
There's no doubt about it.
I said at the time, I'll say it again today.
There's no replacing Rush Limbaugh.
But I know what he would want.
He would want all of us to step up.
He'd want all of us to do our part.
And I think he'd be very proud of this country for getting back on track.
That much I know about Rush Limbaugh.
We learned a lot about Rush when he was sick.
And I knew the inside story.
I didn't talk about it.
But, I mean, he would half-kill himself with cancer treatment.
And we found out what Rush Limbaugh's bucket list was.
And his bucket list was as soon as he was barely well enough, and some days he really wasn't well enough to get back on the air.
That's what his bucket list was, to do what he was doing every day because he loved it so much.
And I kind of identify with that because I feel blessed and I love what I do every day.
And he loved this country.
He believed in this country.
He believed in the goodness of the people of this country.
And he preached that and articulated that better than anybody that I've ever heard.
And I think he'd be proud of the opportunity we now have.
I think it's an opportunity that maybe you see once every 100 years.
And that is to really see a transformational country.
Anyway, you're a trucker and a firefighter.
You're a two-time hero.
We're glad you're out there, Eric.
Thank you so much for listening and staying with us.
We appreciate it.
Let's get to our busy phones again.
Let's say hi to Ron.
He's in Seattle.
Ron, how are you?
Glad you called.
Oh, hi, Sean.
You, sir, are an American beater.
And I have three questions today.
Yes, sir.
All right, let's go one at a time.
Question number one, go.
Okay, people, that's going to happen now that Trump's in.
I would like to see states, and frankly, I would hope that we could do it federally, have standards for elections that bring integrity into the process.
Voter ID, signature verification, chain of controls for the mail-in ballots that might come from the military, the sick, the elderly, whoever would be eligible.
I'd like Election Day to be a national holiday.
I'd like same-day election, same-day voting.
I don't think anybody should be voting weeks and weeks ahead of Election Day.
A lot can happen.
Look at the Hunter Biden laptop just a few weeks before the 2020 election.
I would like to see signature verification.
I think I mentioned that.
I would like to see updated voter rolls and partisan observers watching the voting all day and the vote counting all night.
And you count the votes, you declare a winner, and that's the end of that.
I think that would bring integrity to the system and confidence in the results.
Yes, I believe we should adopt all of that.
Every state should adopt all of that.
Okay, is there any your ideas on term limits?
You know, I've always said about term limits the same thing, and it's a bad idea whose time has probably come.
You know, I can see already in Congress, you know, and I understand people have their principles.
Remember, 90% of these congressmen and women, they're in very safe districts.
These congressmen and women, you know, they don't have to worry about re-election.
So they all have their own agenda.
You know, if you live in a farm state, you want to help farmers.
If you live in an energy state, you want to help in the energy sector.
I mean, I'm not faulting them for that, but the real priority right now has to be to get the country on track.
Right now, the agenda should be control the borders, deport these terrorists, cartel members, gang members, murderers, rapists.
The priorities need energy dominance so we have the money to do all the things that need to be done, eliminating the gap of vulnerability, preparing for the next generation of warfare, bringing back law and order and safety and security to every small town and big city, and establishing America's place in the world as the leader of the free world.
And if we stick to that agenda and we cut government spending, waste, fraud, and abuse by $2 trillion as proposed by Doge, I think that that would be transformational.
I really do.
And I don't think it needs to be any more complicated than that.
And there are other things we need to do, prop up Social Security and Medicare.
And we got to fix, you know, Obamacare is still a mess.
We can definitely do better with telemedicine and healthcare savings accounts and healthcare cooperatives and things like that.
So there's a lot of work ahead of us.
And there's going to be times we deputize all of you in this audience.
We'll need you to call your elected representatives and put pressure on them.
You know, Donald Trump set the agenda, and that's the agenda that Republicans need to follow.
I have something I'll probably announce tonight on TV to help get them off to a good start, at least attempt to.
But I'll be spending extra time in Washington next week.
Let's put it that way.
I appreciate you being with us, my friend.
800-941-Sean, our number, if you want to be a part of the program.
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