Sean Hannity Show - Bill O'Reilly - January 22nd, Hour 2

Jan. 23, 2025 - Sean Hannity Show

31:21

Bill O'Reilly - January 22nd, Hour 2

Bill O’Reilly, author of Confronting the Presidents, No Spin Assessments from Washington to Biden, gives us his take on all the inaugural madness. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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	This is an iHeart Podcast.
	All right, thanks, Scott Shannon.
	Hour two, Sean Hannity Show, 800-941-SEAN.
	If you want to be a part of the program, our final show in our nation's capital.
	And then I escaped back to the free state, the warmer state.
	It's not as warm right now.
	They had snow in Pensacola and Tallahassee for crying out loud.
	I mean, South Carolina has snow, and Georgia, I think, had snow, and everybody's getting snow.
	And guess what?
	You can all keep it.
	And I prefer no snow in South Florida.
	But that's neither here nor there.
	Anyway, so we have our interview with the president in the Oval Office tonight.
	It'll air 9 Eastern.
	Actually, we went long, so it'll air tonight and part two tomorrow night, which is going to be great.
	Some really, really reflective moments of the president and things that you've never heard before.
	And I don't want to give answers.
	And then I asked a bunch of stuff that I thought was interesting.
	And, you know, are you going to release the JFK files, the RFK files, the MLK files, and why, you know, things that you normally don't talk about.
	And then we talked about the economy and foreign policy and Putin and Xi and the Mullahs in Iran and the economy and energy and all the things that you might expect.
	We also, I'm not sure if this is going to air tonight, but we went into a long, long discussion.
	He was very relaxed, very dialed in, very focused.
	And it was just a great experience for me.
	And I think you really get to see more of the person that I've known for 30 years, I think, in this interview than any other interview I've done.
	And anyway, so part one of that will air tonight.
	It'll be the full hour on Hannity on the Fox News channel.
	Let's go back out.
	And we do talk a lot about Los Angeles and California and forestry and him and Gavin Newsome in 2018, which we played that clip numerous times on this program.
	And I mean, there really is no excuse for not having the water from Northern California flow down to Southern California.
	There's no, what's the purpose of having a hydrant if there's no water in the hydrant?
	What is the purpose of having a reservoir if it's not full of water?
	And what is the purpose of getting a degree in forestry if you're not going to practice management of areas that are known for wildfires and for drought?
	It's insane.
	And that known for Santa Ana winds.
	Well, this has now resulted in a petition.
	It's at change.org.petition demanding the resignation of the LA Mayor Karen Bass.
	In two days, they got 152,000 signatures.
	That's how bad this has been for people out there.
	I've never met anybody.
	That's not true.
	There are politicians that are that bad and that incompetent, and she is one of them.
	Here she addresses reporters' questions about the impact of the budget cuts to the LA Fire Department.
	And meanwhile, keep in mind as you hear this, they allocated federal state dollars, $650 million to make the port of L.A. green, and they advocated even more money, if you can believe it, for wind turbines.
	I mean, it's insanity.
	Anyway, here she is.
	Can you address the criticism now over the budget issue and the slashing $17 million?
	You know, I think if you go back and look at the reductions that were made, there were no reductions that were made that would have impacted the situation that we were dealing with over the last couple of days.
	And then there was a little bit, there was a little bit of confusion because money was allocated to be distributed later on, which was actually going to support salaries and other parts of the fire department that were distributed a little later.
	So I think it's most important to understand that we were in tough budgetary times.
	Everybody knew that.
	But that the impact of our budget really did not impact what we've been going through over the last few days.
	Again, back to the unprecedented windstorm.
	When at such ferocity that we haven't seen in years.
	Okay, you want to blame Santa Ana winds.
	They're predictable.
	They happen quite often out there.
	And she was warned by the fire chief specifically that they had half the manpower if they ever had a major fire in Los Angeles.
	Joel Pollack, who's going to join us in a minute, says he has spoken to the White House advance team for Donald Trump on what they need to do to help the Pacific Palisades.
	The president did confirm that he's going to North Carolina.
	He is going.
	We talked a lot about that, Linda, which is the right thing to do.
	And we talked a lot about the help and whether or not, I won't give you the answer, that help should be contingent on actions that are taken.
	Anyway, here's what Joel Pollack said.
	Hi, everyone.
	This is Joel Pollack from Breitbart News.
	As I was driving down Sunset Boulevard today, I noticed a group of cars parking.
	I thought it was a local or state official, but it turned out to be the advance team for the Trump White House 24 hours after he took the oath of office.
	He is already planning a visit to Pacific Palisades and other areas that are affected by the wildfires.
	And I spoke to his advanced team.
	You can see them there behind me.
	And I told them what they need to look at when they come to Pacific Palisades and what the issues are here, the lack of water pressure, the lack of leadership from the city, the traffic jam that happened on Sunset Boulevard because of a lack of traffic officers on scene.
	We love our police, we love our firefighters, but there was a lack of leadership and coordination by city officials.
	And I've talked about the other issues as well.
	And I am confident that when they visit on Friday, they're going to talk to those of us who live here and who understand the issues and who understand that much more could have been done to save the Pacific Palisades.
	All right, Joel Pollack, Senior Editor-at-Large at Breitbart News, and also Kira Davis, L.A. resident, author of Drawing Lines: Why Conservatives Must Begin to Battle Fiercely in the Arena of Ideas.
	Thank you both.
	Both live out there.
	Joel, let me start with you based on what you saw out there.
	I mean, Donald Trump told me personally he's going out there.
	I asked him extensively about the issues involving Gavin.
	Gavin has been trying to trumproot California.
	I think the state legislature is putting aside $25, $50 million for lawsuits against the federal government, which only costs the taxpayers of California more money.
	And, you know, all this money spent on green energy and they cut back on the fire department.
	They don't practice forestry.
	They don't have any water.
	I mean, it's ridiculous.
	It is ridiculous, and people are really upset about it.
	There are areas where private property owners were not able to clear brush on state land or land in the Santa Monica Conservancy, which is in the mountains here near the upper part of Pacific Palisade.
	That's where the fuel for the fire came.
	And this city did not coordinate the emergency response.
	Again, we have great firefighters and great police, but there was nobody quarterbacking the emergency effort.
	The agencies weren't talking to one another.
	Rudy Giuliani on 9-11 had a command center.
	It was hit.
	It was destroyed.
	He set up another command center.
	There was one person in charge, one point of contact through which everything could go.
	Somebody knew what to do and how to keep everybody talking to each other.
	And that did not happen here.
	And it's a miracle more people weren't killed because of that traffic jam that you heard me talk about in the clip.
	People had to abandon their cars and run for their lives because there was nobody directing traffic in the evacuation.
	And that is a failure of city leadership.
	And we have yet to hear anybody take responsibility.
	The LA County fire chief, not the city fire chief, but the LA County fire chief, apologized to the residents that as far as we've had any kind of accountability.
	But nobody else is.
	And in fairness to that fire chief, the fire chief is the one that said we only have half staff to go and fight a wildfire.
	And that warning was given well in advance of this fire.
	That's correct.
	And all that we've seen from everybody else is patting themselves on the back for what a great effort they've done.
	And that's why Trump needs to come here and he needs to intervene and tell California to get its act together because this is not acceptable, not just to those of us who live here.
	This is becoming a drag on the nation.
	We're going to ask the nation to bail us out.
	Then we have to make sure that we take measures to stop this from happening again because it cannot happen over and over again.
	Florida has a snowstorm coming.
	Ron DeSantis is out there with all the emergency vehicles you need, with all the power teams, power companies, whatever.
	He's got everything in place.
	Gavin Newsom, where is he?
	You know, I did a story about that today.
	I got an email from Newsom's office.
	They want me to correct this story because they say, well, we did send 65 engines throughout Southern California.
	Yeah, maybe you sent 65 engines for one of the most extreme wind events in local memory, but there were none here.
	And this town burnt down.
	So I'm not correcting my article.
	And that's the thing.
	They want to look good.
	They don't want to do the right thing.
	I think you raise a lot of great points.
	And I don't think there's any excuse on anybody's part.
	And the one guy that took responsibility, frankly, was the one that was warning about what would happen and how unprepared they were.
	Kira Davis, your reaction to this.
	Well, I want to point out that everything we learn moving forward makes the situation worse.
	I reported a story over in my substack this week.
	I got a tip from a friend in Arizona who said their neighbor works for LAFD, but lives in Arizona.
	So I did a little poking around, and it turns out that even as recently as 2020, the LA Times reported that LA City is missing up to 3% of their fire force.
	They live in other states, and they commute in for work.
	So there were a lot.
	And on the night of the firestorms that Joel was talking about so passionately, every off-duty LA FD officer was called to duty.
	How many of those people weren't even living in the state to get here?
	I'm not blaming anyone for taking advantage of these loopholes because this is a difficult state to live in and thrive in.
	I'm blaming the government, Gavin Newsom, Karen Bass, and the supermajority in Sacramento for making it impossible for people to live and thrive here, especially the people who serve our citizens.
	And as Joel, I just want to echo what Joel said, because being here and having to watch these idiots give their stupid press conferences every day, they never give information.
	All they do is congratulate each other on what a great job they're doing.
	Well, I mean, it is amazing, actually.
	It's sort of like, and this actually came up in my conversation with Donald Trump that'll air tonight.
	You know, the two assassins, would-be assassins, you know, what did the Secret Service say?
	Oh, that was a sloped roof.
	No, it was not a slope roof.
	That was a lie.
	So we put them inside the building.
	What?
	You can't see anything inside the building.
	You needed people surrounding the perimeter of the building so nobody can get on the roof of the building 130 yards with a scoped AR-15 and nearly assassinate a former president and top presidential candidate.
	But they allowed that to happen.
	They made that excuse.
	Then Trump International, the same story occurs, a known area where paparazzi hang out, a treat area surrounding Trump International.
	They never swept the area.
	And if it were not for one eagle-eyed, sharpshooting Secret Service agent, Donald Trump would have been killed then.
	He got within 300 yards of the president with an AK-47 and a scope on it.
	I mean, you can't miss that shot.
	I mean, we're just lucky it didn't happen.
	Now, Joel, they're saying that these fires are continuing to burn as, you know, Santa Ana winds have returned to strength and fuel fires near San Diego at this point.
	Yes, there is a fire burning today at Lake Hughes, and it is moving rapidly in strong winds.
	And they've just sent eight helicopters over there to try to deal with it.
	It's not as sort of a wind event as we experienced on the 7th of January.
	So hopefully they can get those airborne assets up there to dump water on the fire and do what to do.
	But a lot of what you're seeing right now in California is shutting the stable door after the horses have bolted.
	So they're all coming out with press releases about how they're preparing for the next wind event.
	And this weekend we have rain, so they're preparing for the rain event because there could be landslide.
	So now they want to be seen to be doing the right thing, but they did not do it before January 7th.
	And they were actually having press conferences on January 8th, 300 yards away from where I'm standing, further down on the beach, while the town was still burning up above.
	And people watched their houses burn while the governor and the mayor were giving press conferences and they couldn't get firefighters here.
	So there needs to be accountability, and it's not going to come from California.
	It's got to come from, first of all, the Republicans in Congress who need to investigate California's failure and Los Angeles' failure.
	In fact, everybody, we're supposed to have the Olympics here in three years.
	We can't do that if we have this level of incompetence in city management.
	And then the Trump administration needs to take charge of the rebuilding effort and make sure that the agendas of the Democratic Party to cover itself don't complicate the agendas.
	This is an area that is more conservative than other parts of L.A.
	They voted for Rick Caruso for mayor in 2022, not Karen Bass.
	And he managed to save his mall using private firefighters.
	Nobody blames him for that.
	People say that's evidence of what could have been done if there were more fire trucks, if there was more water.
	But there's also a lot of Democrat agenda stuff happening here where the Democratic Party wants to control the rebuilding.
	They're going to try to impose all their own priorities.
	They want zoning for low-income housing or they want environmentally friendly, climate-friendly, whatever.
	Well, look, you know, to that I say this: take a look at the skies over L.A. even today.
	And tell me, how's the air quality out there?
	And how good is that for the environment?
	I'm just running out of time.
	I do appreciate both of you, Kira Davis, Joel Pollock.
	Thank you both.
	And to all our friends that have suffered here, our prayers are with you.
	But you better change your government unless you want more of the same.
	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 Podcast, or wherever you listen.
	To our phones we go.
	Paul, my free state of Florida.
	I can't wait to get back.
	It's very cold in D.C.
	I hope my state misses me because I miss it.
	What's going on?
	We miss you terribly, too, but it is a little cool for us Floridians down here right now.
	I've been reading about it, but I'm a little more south probably than you are.
	Where are you?
	About 50 miles south of Jacksonville.
	Okay.
	Jacksonville got snow, is my understanding.
	The north side of Jacksonville got a little flurries, yes, sir.
	And so did the panhandle.
	I mean, Pensacola got snow.
	Pensacola got a lot of snow.
	Yeah, crazy.
	Sean, I wanted to mention the hypocrisy of the Democrats that are in office.
	It's killing me.
	Back in 2020, you mentioned, Mr. Trump, President Trump, you should pardon your family and yourself.
	They're going to hunt you.
	What did they do?
	And then today, here we are with Mr. Biden pardoning his family with everything that crime family has done.
	And the Democrats act like it's the greatest thing since sliced bread.
	I just don't understand it.
	They have to hear themselves saying these things.
	Look, I could play it for you.
	I played it yesterday.
	Maybe it's worth playing again.
	But, you know, you have Chuck Schumer and the media and Democrats and Adam Schiff.
	We'll end with Adam Schiff, you know, slamming Trump in 2020 over the issue of preemptive pardons.
	And now they sit idly by and silent.
	And if anything, they just justify the fact that Joe did it because what they really fear that they'll never express, they know what they did to Trump was wrong.
	They know they weaponized justice.
	They know that they tried to use lawfare to prevent him from ever becoming president.
	They threw everything they possibly had at this man, and they failed.
	And so what they fear is, and this is where the preemptive pardons come up, is that what they did would be done to them.
	And that's what the origins of this is.
	Listen to this montage.
	President's reportedly asking his staff whether he can issue preemptive pardons for himself, his family members, Rudy Giuliani.
	There's a simple answer: no.
	No, Mr. President.
	That would be a gross abuse of the presidential pardon authority.
	Do you think those pardons are appropriate?
	Do you think they would be legal?
	I don't think they are appropriate at all.
	So, this is an administration that came in grifting, and it appears it's going to lead the same way.
	Is there an innocent explanation for someone to seek preemptive pardons for family members?
	Would you do that if you knew you were innocent and just worried about outside forces?
	The answer to that is going to be no.
	And, you know, if you haven't done anything wrong, you sit there and go, what do you need a preemptive pardon for?
	It's an effort not only to prospectively pardon people for things they have not yet been charged with and may never be charged with, but also it's the president's own family.
	It's people that have been covering up for the president in addition to his own family.
	And so there is a self-interest at play as well.
	And I think that makes this quite unique.
	Oh, what a change in heart.
	What's your reaction, Paul?
	And then you have, you know, the Rachel Maddows of the world.
	Joe Biden said it.
	Chucky Schumann, Schumer said it.
	Adam Schiff, who got a pardon, a preemptive pardon, he said it.
	You know, and these MSDNC fake news CNN people said it.
	And it's just, it's pretty amazing to me.
	And then, you know, Joe Biden said he wouldn't do it and he did it.
	One thing I'll say about Trump, a lot of people, and I asked him about this tonight, you know, he ran and he said he's going to give pardons to the people convicted about January 6th.
	He said they've spent enough time in jail and they were unfairly targeted, a lot of them.
	And he said, no, I'm sorry.
	Yet people can burn down cities and it's a peaceful protest and let's make accounts for them so we can bail them out of jail.
	I mean, exactly.
	574 riots in the summer of 2020.
	We had dozens of dead Americans, thousands of injured cops, billions in property damage.
	We have videotape evidence.
	They never prosecuted these people.
	And remember, Kamala, they're not going to stop.
	We're not going to stop.
	They shouldn't stop.
	Anyway, my friend, thank you.
	800-941 Sean, our number, Richard, Massachusetts.
	Richard, how are you?
	Glad you called, sir.
	How you doing, Mr. Hannity?
	I'm good, sir.
	What's going on?
	Mr. Hannity, I'm so glad that Trump won.
	You know, when he lost, I almost had a heart attack.
	I didn't think I was going to be able to live through it.
	And all the time when he was gone, I was thinking, why don't you run for like president or something really big?
	You're a very intelligent man.
	You're very honest.
	When people are being killed in the world, you always say get their names, you know, on TV to show how much you care about the people.
	And I personally, myself, you know, you're such a big fan of Mr. Trump.
	I believe that you'd have a lot of followers.
	I believe whatever you wanted to run for, I believe you would win.
	I don't know if I could win Dog Catcher.
	I mean, I don't think Linda would ever vote for me, number one, for anything.
	I would vote for you two or three times like a true friend.
	Vote early, vote office.
	And vote under many different names.
	Forget about voter integrity that we fight for every day.
	You know, I've just never felt a calling to run for higher office.
	You know, I spent a lot of time with these congressmen yesterday, and I did see Senator John Thune last night as well.
	And I had an interview with him.
	We're going to air that later in the week.
	And I can only tell you this, and I'll be very blunt with you.
	Although I got to admit, being in the Oval Office is a very, very cool experience.
	And all of you in this audience make that possible for me because you watch Hannity, the TV show, and you listen to the Sean Hannity radio show.
	And I never forget that part of it.
	But it is, you know, and I won't reveal, I had a private conversation with President Trump.
	We talked a lot about being back there.
	And we'll air a lot of it.
	We talked about it on air, and then we talked about it more personally off-air.
	And today happens to be his 20th wedding anniversary, which is pretty cool.
	And anyway, it's a special place.
	I wish every American got a chance to go there and to sit there and to see how hard the job is.
	The weight of the world is on your shoulders.
	That is not an easy job.
	At any moment, and we talked about terrorists being in this country.
	And I said, Mr. President, you know, at any moment, your whole trajectory of your presidency can shift, and we can be in a war footing.
	And, you know, that has to be in the back of your mind at all times.
	Anyway, I appreciate the call.
	Well, you're very kind, Richard.
	If God calls me to do something, I'm not going to say no.
	I'm just hoping he doesn't knock on that door.
	Quick break, right back.
	We'll get to your phone calls, 800-941-Sean.
	Our number, if you want to be a part of the program as we continue.
	Final hour, my town hall with Congress last night and Speaker of the House, Mike Johnson, straight ahead.
	All right, we continue back to our busy phones.
	Let's say hi to Carolyn in California.
	Carolyn, so sorry for all that you guys have suffered through.
	Yes, Sean.
	I was calling about if President Trump has something in mind for the senior citizens because we're taking that one-two punch between Social Security and Medicare.
	I waited day by day and through the voting and the outcome.
	That was more important to me than Christmas that Trump would make it through.
	I don't know if Election Day should be more important than Jesus' birthday.
	I'm not sure, but it was pretty darn important.
	I'll tell you that.
	I was with Jesus and talking to him at the same time.
	But I'm just talking about the typical presence and that type of thing.
	That was not important to me.
	What was important to me was that I make it through Christmas and through the nomination of Trump running and his actual winning.
	And I was on pins and needles the night that he went through the voting process.
	So I just want to know, I know he said some things about Medicare and how the administration had put a real dent in our Medicare, which is true.
	And we're taking a pounding when it comes to that for seniors.
	And every cent counts that we get each month.
	And I'm retired, so I don't want to end up going to Walmart, you know, working.
	Well, you should go to Walmart.
	I like Walmart.
	But putting that aside, you should not have any benefits cut.
	And one of the things, again, we got into a lot of specificity and detail, but we talked about how rich this country can be if we just tap into our energy resources.
	Guess what?
	We'd be able to give everybody a bigger, a larger cost of living adjustment increase in Medicare, Social Security.
	We'd be able to salvage that from insolvency, stop robbing from future generations and our children and grandchildren, pay down our debt and live within our means.
	And there's so much that can be done if we just apply simple common sense to governing.
	And we're much better than what we had the last four years.
	I mean, I promise you, Joe Biden could never do an interview like Donald Trump did with me today.
	And I wouldn't have cared if it was with a liberal.
	I want to know what the president's thinking.
	I'll tell you what I think makes my interviews with Donald Trump different than most other people is I let him talk.
	I want to hear him talk.
	And at the right time, I'll interject and maybe move the interview along a little bit if we're talking about a topic too long because you only have a limited time frame to do it.
	But I want people to hear what their president is thinking, what he's believing, what he's saying, because it matters.
	Carolyn, thank you.
	Tim in Colorado, we have a minute for you.
	Tim, glad you called.
	Hey, Sean, longtime listener, first-time caller.
	Thanks for having me.
	You know, I wanted to see what President Trump's thoughts are on addressing Chinese landownership in this country since TikTok's on top of mind, the Panama Canal is being run through a proxy from a company they own.
	If there's anything on the table to address that, I talked to him about China.
	He did have a conversation with President Xi.
	I got one little tidbit off the record and then what he said on air.
	I think his plan ultimately is to have a good relationship with all these countries.
	But I think he knows he's dealing with bad actors and that it's going to take strength, and they're going to have to believe he means it if he's going to put tariffs on these countries.
	And I have no doubt he will be successful.
	He's a very strong human being.
	America got to see that.
	They saw Donald Trump stand up after nearly dying.
	And we spent a lot of time on the assassination attempt on his life.
	And he stood up and he said, fight, fight, fight.
	That is not your average person.
	That is not, you know, people ask me all the time, well, who's the next Donald Trump?
	I'm like, there is nobody.
	There will be nobody.
	Doesn't mean there aren't good conservatives.
	There aren't people that won't push the MAGA agenda.
	There was never another Reagan.
	There was only one Reagan.
	There's never going to be another guy like Trump.
	And that's why these four years matter.
	That's why I took the time to go to Congress last night and make sure they're on the right page so that they can implement the Trump agenda, which, by the way, we're going to air in the final hour of the program today.
	Anyway, but I appreciate the call.
	I really do.
	We have to deal with China, Russia.
	We mentioned Russia earlier in the program today.
	Iran.
	We've got big challenges ahead of us this country.
	And the good news is I think all of these problems we have, we're going to be able to fix with just simple common sense measures.
	Hey, if you're a small business owner, if you have kids, listen up.
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	You can talk to your kids wherever they live.
	And they're not going to be on the internet because it's not a phone.
	It's nationwide with complete privacy, up to 200 units on one feed.
	They're 100% private, as I said.
	They're ready to go right out of the box.
	Just go to rapidradios.com, rapidradios.com.
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	I can wake Linda up at 3 in the morning.
	Linda, wake up.
	It's me.
	It's the best.
	I do my boys.
	I always work at 3 a.m., so you're in luck.
	Not always.
	Occasionally asleep.
	You're occasionally asleep.
	Anyway, you talk about technology.
	I can talk from Florida to anybody, any place, anywhere.
	They have a nationwide LTE network.
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	Real new technology, walkie-talkie ease, all the connectivity, all the technology of today.
	And it just is great.
	You're going to love them.
	They're fun to use, too.
	Linda, wait.
	Linda, it's 3 a.m.
	Are you awake?
	Just checking.
	Just checking.
	Are you awake?
	Some people are looking for their children.
	This guy's looking for his producer.
	He's got things to do.
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