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Jan. 25, 2025 - Sean Hannity Show
28:47
FEMA Should Go - January 24th, Hour 1

President Trump has been very critical of FEMA.  Is it time to bring back the power of recovery to the States?  President Trump thinks so!See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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All right.
Thank you, Scott Shannon.
And thanks to all of you for being with us.
Write down our toll-free telephone number.
If you want to be a part of the program, it is 800-941 Sean.
If you'd like to join us, we've got a lot coming up in the course of the program today.
We expect about the time that I come on TV tonight that there will be a vote in the U.S. Senate on the nomination of Pete Hagseth.
It is expected to be close, but you can't say anything with any degree of certainty when it comes to Washington, D.C. If you want a friend, get a dog.
There's the best advice I can give people.
And at this time, when it's freezing cold, you might want to get an extra sweater and bundle up to the maximum level.
I've got to give Donald Trump credit beyond moving.
Forget about the first hundred days.
His first hundred hours have been incredible.
We're going to play part of my interview with him in the Oval Office coming up later in the program as well today.
And the president now, and just think about this for a second.
You think that Joe Biden could sit with me for over an hour and answer any question?
And by the way, I don't give him questions ahead of time.
And sometimes it doesn't even matter what questions I ask him.
He wants to talk about things.
He wanted to talk a lot about California.
He went to North Carolina.
We're going to talk about that.
He's headed to California.
Gavin is planning on, you know, sabotaging this.
I don't know what is going on in Gavin Newsom's mind, but whoever's advising him or if he's just running rogue, I just think it's the wrong strategy in so many different ways.
We'll talk about that.
But while he was in, and he said this to me in the interview in the Oval Office, while he was in North Carolina, he said he may eliminate FEMA.
And we probably more than any other show have chronicled the disaster that has been the northeastern part of North Carolina that it was devastated by Hurricane Helene.
It was devastated.
And that is a failure of FEMA.
Remember, we kept having the Operation Hilo guys on.
One of the guys was on yesterday.
We kept having Franklin Graham on the program.
We kept talking to people that were raising money.
And FEMA for weeks was nowhere to be found.
And the president today said he's considering an executive order that would eliminate FEMA, blasting it as a failure, saying that the states should oversee their own disaster recovery efforts.
And if you think about North Carolina, without neighbor helping neighbor and groups like Samaritan's Purse and groups like Operation Hilo, these people would be out in the freezing cold.
I mean, just go back a week and a half ago or two weeks ago or a week ago, whatever it was, they were on a one-day deadline.
If you didn't fill out the proper paperwork and you were being housed by FEMA, they were thinking of kicking out 3,500 people.
And it's freezing cold right now in North Carolina.
I mean, we've got this Arctic blast that continues all throughout the country.
But what the president is saying here, he's not saying that we're not going to help our fellow Americans in need, just the opposite.
He was in Asheville, North Carolina.
He surveyed the damage, which is just devastating.
He said a state response to the crisis would be faster and less expensive.
He rightly pointed out FEMA's not done its job.
And where was Joe Biden?
Where was Kamala Harris during all of this?
We kept calling them out saying, when are you going to go help North Carolina?
They never seemed to care.
I have no doubt it had an impact on the election.
Early on, we were all worried whether or not people in the affected areas would even be able to vote, but they voted.
They voted in big numbers.
And Donald Trump carried the state by more than was anticipated.
And he just said FEMA has not done the job.
And I like, frankly, the concept when North Carolina gets hit, that the governor will take care of it.
When Florida gets hit, the governor takes care of it.
And to have a group of people come in from an area they don't even know where they're going to solve immediately a problem is something that never worked for him.
And he's right.
He's not saying not to give money.
No, we're going to give money to North Carolina.
And North Carolinians deserve the support of the American people, especially in light of how much money we give foreign countries like Ukraine and others.
It's a massive amount of money.
And so the American people are absolutely the most generous people on earth.
They're willing to help the people of North Carolina and the people in Los Angeles.
And we want them to rebuild.
Now, in Los Angeles, a little bit of a different situation because a lot of things were not done properly.
And if we're going to give billions of dollars in this estimates out there, $250 billion, up to a trillion dollars, it's not that high, but $250 billion of taxpayer money, you've got to give it with some conditions that prevent this from ever happening again, like practicing the science of forestry, removing the brush, controlled burns.
You build these areas, these gaps where, you know, even with Santa Ana wins, Santa Ana wins are predictable.
Wildfires in California are predictable.
These are events that can be stopped.
These are events that could be handled.
You don't cut the firefighters' budget when the lead firefighter is saying that you need twice the manpower if you ever have a wildfire in the state.
I mean, that's just, that is madness by its very definition.
It's insane.
You do need hydrants that actually have water in them.
You do need reservoirs that are filled.
You can't be pouring, you know, hundreds of millions of gallons of water into the Pacific every year from Northern California when Southern California is very drought prone and you need that water and you can easily transport that water from the north to the south in that state.
It's not that complicated.
It is the highest tax state in the country.
And all of this is just this basic, simple common sense.
The president also, newly confirmed CIA director John Ratcliffe, has vowed to conclusively answer questions about the origins of COVID.
That was good news in my mind today.
We already know the origins of COVID.
We know that it happened in the Wuhan Virology Lab.
Why did Anthony Fauci, you know, why was he, you know, feverishly texting in January of 2020 as he was with other members of the NIH, knowing that they gave money to the EcoHealth Alliance, knowing that the EcoHealth Alliance had given that money to the Wuhan Virology Lab that was known for gain of function research.
It's insane.
But Trump continues to move at the speed of light at a pace that Joe Biden could never think of running at.
Donald Trump today pardoning 23 abortion protesters convicted by the Biden DOJ.
These were pro-life, peaceful pro-life protesters.
They should not have been prosecuted, he said.
Many of them were elderly people.
This is insane.
They never should have been prosecuted.
This is a great honor to sign this.
And he issued the pardons on the eve of the annual March for Life on D.C., a massive anti-abortion protest that will take place in Washington to mark the Supreme Court's Roe v.
Wade decision in 1973.
Back to California for a minute.
We still have fires as of today going on in multiple areas in Southern California.
You know, you have the Hughes fire off the Topeya Canyon Road, which is ongoing.
And you have other firefighters working to prevent the spread of that fire.
And in the last day, hundreds of very tired, weary firefighters, because they're undermanned and understaffed and underpaid, frankly, have battled multiple fires in the hills of Los Angeles and Ventura County and other areas that are threatened like Brentwood and Bel Air.
And Mayor Bass says her brother lost her home in the Palisades fire.
Okay.
But they're not practicing basic fire management.
And then you've got to look at how they spend their money.
While they're cutting back, they don't have enough firefighters to fight a wildfire, according to the fire chief, and yet they still cut the firefighters' budget, but then they allocate over $650 million federal and state dollars to make the port of Los Angeles green.
This is insane.
And I read this article today.
It was in Politico, hardly a conservative publication, that Gavin Newsom has now said he's yet to hear from Donald Trump.
And whether he's invited or not, Newsom confirmed he's planning to show up at the airport for a customary greeting.
You know, I look forward to being there in the tarmac to thank the president, welcome him, and making sure that all the resources he needs for a successful briefing are provided to him.
I mean, this is no way to communicate with the president.
I don't know who's advising Gavin, but it's really bad advice.
You know, Trump to visit California, and he's been very critical of a lot of basic, basic, simple, you know, forest management items that have not been handled, including the water, including the hydrants, including the reservoirs, including cutting the firefighters' budget, including money, billions set aside for, you know, turbines and all this other nonsense and all these other green products.
So that'll be interesting to watch.
Not sure exactly if Newsom's doing this for show, but we'll see what happens when he gets out there.
I don't think the president's going out there not to help the people of California.
He's going out to help them.
But they do have to make some changes out there.
It's simple, basic common sense.
A lot of reaction to Donald Trump signing an order to declassify the files on JFK, RFK, and the MLK assassinations.
He had promised to declassify the previously classified documents during the 2024 campaign.
Yesterday, when I actually saw the tape of it, it was more of a beatdown than I thought it was, although President Trump did it in a pretty nice way, calling out the Bank of America chief, Brian Moynihan, during the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.
He did it vis-a-vis a Zoom link.
But these are all important items for the president.
We know that the president's nominations, the way things look like they're going tonight, that it looks like Senator Murkowski, Lisa Murkowski, will be a no vote on Pete Hagseth.
Collins will be a no vote on Pete Hagseth.
And while Mitch McConnell did vote to move the bill to the Senate floor, there is absolutely no guidance at all from his office.
I called over myself personally today as to which way he's going to vote.
And, you know, so in that sense, it does hang in the balance.
JD Vance will be on hand in case he needs to be a tiebreaking vote.
Our friend John Kennedy from Louisiana gave some pretty hilarious advice to one of Donald Trump's nominees during his confirmation hearing.
Russell Voigt, Trump's nominee to head the Office of Management and Budget, had his second hearing on Tuesday ahead of his confirmation.
Voigt previously served in the OMB during the first Trump administration.
He wants fiscal reform, tackling the administrative deep state.
Anyway, he said, many people also call, he said, you served in Washington for years.
You're going to be challenging the status quo.
You're going to be called crazy.
Many people thought Noah in the Bible was crazy, equipped.
And then the rains came and all the fact-checkers died.
You have to persevere.
You got to love this guy.
Anyway, so this major hurdle yesterday, but we still don't know about Senator Mitch McConnell.
There's been some rumblings that others, there might be some discontent among others until this vote takes place.
You know, I don't count votes until they're actually cast, but this is an important vote because we need a Secretary of Defense and we need one in quickly.
John Ratcliffe was sworn in as CIA director.
After the vote on Pete Hegseth, I believe they're going to vote next to end debate on DHS Secretary-nominee Christy Noam.
Not a problem expected in that area.
Hawaii's Hirano is the only senator to vote no on Collins' continuing partisan streak of the hearings.
Anyway, the only lawmaker on the Senate Veterans Affair Committee to oppose Trump's nominee to the Department of Veterans Affairs.
That's Doug Collins, former representative from Georgia.
So that's the latest on the nominee front, and there's a lot there.
We have a ton of immigration news we've got to get to today.
Donald Trump, more economic news.
The economy he is inheriting is an unmitigated disaster for the American people.
It means all of you out there listening.
And we'll give you that information so you know exactly where Donald Trump is starting as he begins the process of hopefully getting this economy humming again and getting prices down and getting energy prices down and getting inflation down and getting interest rates down.
It won't happen overnight, but hopefully it can happen pretty quickly.
Hey there, I'm Mary Catherine Ham, and I'm Carol Markowitz.
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Watching the people in North Carolina today, it is unbelievable.
When did Hurricane Helene actually hit Linda?
Was it October, November?
Into September.
The end of September.
All right, the end of September.
It's been such a long time.
Anyway, here's President Trump and why Joe Biden, Kamala Harris, you know, didn't give North Carolina the time of day is unfathomable to me, telling the people of North Carolina, the victims, that you're not forgotten and how badly they were treated by the last administration.
We've come to North Carolina with a simple message for all the people of this region who were hit so hard by Hurricane Helene.
And that message is very simple.
You are not forgotten any longer.
You were treated very badly by the previous administration.
And I'm here after a few days of the administration.
We're going to California, Los Angeles.
They got hit hard, as you know.
A lot of that could have been prevented, I think, if they had water, which they had plenty of, but they didn't use it.
But I'm going there, but it was set up to go there.
And I said, well, what about North Carolina?
They said, well, what would you?
I said, I have to stop there first.
I'm stopping in North Carolina.
So we made the stop.
I wanted to come here.
And before I went anywhere, frankly, in the campaign, I promised that I'd come back to Western North Carolina to help the people of the state.
And today, here I am to deliver on that promise.
And we have a lot of things in mind.
And we're getting the Corps of the Army Corps of Engineers all set.
You need your riverbanks fixed.
You need a lot of roads fixed.
And we're going to get it done in rapid time.
And I've asked Susie Wiles and all of my people to start calling up, get the Corps ready, and they're going to get ready to go.
I don't know what it is.
I don't know what took so long for the other administration.
But remember, I wasn't here for the first four months or three months, whatever it may be.
See, we can only start as of essentially one or two days ago.
And we've made a lot of progress over the last couple of days, Michael.
I understand we're going to get you the resources you need and the support that you deserve.
And we'll be at your side through every step of the rebuilding.
And no American is going to be left behind.
No American is going to be left behind.
And we don't need FEMA to do it.
Let's go back to October.
Joe Biden telling another lie, like the border's secure and the borders closed and inflation is transitory.
And all the Democrats saying what a cognitive genius he is.
I'm a young person.
He runs circles around four or five of us at one time.
He's so energetic, which we also know was a lie.
But him promising that the victims of Hurricane Helene were getting everything they need in spite of everybody on the ground telling us the exact opposite.
Listen.
What are the states in the storm zone?
What do they need after what you saw today?
Oh, and the storm zone.
Yes, sir.
I'm doing what Storm is talking about.
They're getting everything they need.
They're very happy across the board.
So we're just starting to have to go back to Wisconsin and get some more money for it.
Good president.
Now, I will say this.
If you want to know what really was going on on the ground at the time, let's listen to one of the victims that spoke out today.
She's saying she'd been fighting with FEMA since September the 27th.
Listen.
I've been fighting with FEMA since day one.
Our community, there's like 32 homes.
We don't have a road and a bridge.
We're driving through our neighbor's property.
You know, I went to EMS and I said, look, my concern is if we have a fire or we have an emergency out here, you're not going to get to us.
You can't get those big trucks up here.
And I've called and called and called FEMA.
And, you know, I said, this happened on September 27th.
That's four months ago.
Well, for us, today is still September 27th.
You know, we haven't had help.
And so when I talk to FEMA, I'm explaining the road and the bridge.
And they send me a letter that tells me to basically fix it and send in my receipts.
And they'll refund me some money.
I'm looking at a road and bridge that honestly, the bridge itself is probably going to be $300,000 and the road could be close to that also because we have to have, the community has to have big boulders brought in.
We're not a rich community.
We can't fix it ourselves.
You know, it's just, and as far as like house repairs, I'm still pending.
I can't get money from FEMA until I fix the road and bridge and send in my proof that it's fixed and everything.
It's just, it's been a nightmare.
And I totally feel like that we have been forgotten.
If it had not been for our fellow American citizens who stepped up to help us, I don't know what we would have done.
I have five neighbors around me who completely lost everything.
You know, I have damage to my house, and I feel I don't feel entitled.
I'm embarrassed to even say I need help because, you know, and sometimes there's even that survivors guild is what they're calling it.
You feel guilty to even be alive sometimes.
You know, when you look around, you see your neighbors that are gone.
And it's just, you know, we need help.
I wrote a letter to send to Congress.
You know, I don't understand what's going on.
If we can't get FEMA help, then will you guys help us?
Will you step up and be our fellow citizen?
Will you step up and be our neighbor and send us something?
Help us.
Help us get our community back.
I could go on.
It's just a, I don't know, it's just heartbreaking.
I appreciate you.
Rebuild and we'll send you a check.
Give us the receipts.
What do they think?
People have hundreds of thousands of dollars just standing by to build a new house?
Are they out of their minds?
I've never, this is why government, I always say, don't trust them.
Don't count on them.
And if you need any more evidence, look at government schools.
They can't keep towns and cities safe and secure.
Social Security, Medicare is headed towards insolvency.
Obamacare a disaster, not one promise of Obamacare.
And they want a Green New Deal, cradle to grave, womb to the tomb society.
That's real life what that lady is describing.
And again, neighbor helping neighbor, Samaritans purse.
Franklin Graham was with the president today.
He grew up right near where Hurricane Helen struck.
And he pointed out Trump's not coming there for votes.
The election is over.
He's not running for office again.
He wants to make life better for the people of North Carolina that have been abandoned.
Oh, just send us your receipts.
Well, you can't get through the roads and there's no bridges.
How are you going to get the building materials there?
You're going to fly them in on a helicopter?
Are these people out of their minds?
It's unreal.
They abandon them.
They abandon our fellow Americans.
And then I go to the economic numbers I was pointing out earlier.
Higher mortgage rates, record home prices.
Sales now, U.S. home sales in 2024, the last year of Biden fell to the lowest level in nearly 30 years.
This is two years and running.
It's been a disaster.
Why do you think that is?
Higher mortgage rates, record home prices, kept sales subdued for the second straight year.
People cannot afford it.
I've been there.
I know what it's like.
It sucks.
It just does.
And we have, you know, more people are paying the minimum payment as credit card balances are rising.
You know, in the third quarter of 2024, nearly 11% of active credit card accounts paid only the minimum balance.
Well, you know, with 21, 22% interest rates, you're never going to pay that money off.
And people are using that money not for extravagance.
They're not going to Air Maes and Saks Fifth Avenue and expensive stores.
No, they're going to grocery stores.
They're putting gas in their cars.
That is way too expensive.
You know, whether it's a busted refrigerator, car trouble, medical issues, unexpected cost of any kind, it's a part of life.
But even routine curveballs are now spelling serious financial trouble for many Americans.
According to a news report that came out surveying 1,000 U.S. adults about their ability to handle a surprise bill like that, it found 59% of Americans starting out this year don't have enough savings to cover an unexpected $1,000 emergency expense.
I mean, that's the bare minimum.
$1,000.
Most people can't afford that.
This is what paying $12,000 more a year because of Biden-Harris inflation does to people.
By the way, Trump has ordered the halt of the wind energy and these ugly windmills.
By the way, California, you know, they're cutting the firefighters' budget, but they've put aside billions for that disaster.
And by the way, don't forget it was Donald Trump that got Elon Musk, you know, that's been attacked because he's friends with Donald Trump to get, you know, Starlink communications up for the people in northwestern North Carolina so that they can have communications back.
And Trump's call with the Saudi crown princes resulted in a $600 billion pledge and investment to our country.
I call it the Trump effect.
You know, Trump warning economic leaders at Davos, you know, make your products in America or face tariffs.
I mean, we can't even buy a dozen eggs.
I eat eggs and meat, and the egg supply is now strained because of bird flu.
Most people around the country pay nine bucks, you know, for a dozen eggs.
I know for a fact that's what it costs.
I like to get organic, large, cage-free eggs, you know, trying to eat a little healthier.
And it costs $11 a dozen.
Now, I can afford it, and that's the diet of my choice, but still, that's a lot of money for a lot of people.
I remember when eggs were, you know, just a couple of dollars a dozen.
Now, Donald Trump is using military cargo planes, fulfilling his promise on the border, to fly Biden illegals back across the border.
The president has shuttered the Biden administration's immigration offices in Latin America.
Donald Trump and ICE have raided, you know, make these raids even in sanctuary states and cities.
They're finding pedophiles, gangbangers, and a suspected terrorist.
You know, they're up to hundreds and hundreds of people, including new arrests of pedophiles, gang members, and a suspected terrorist in New York.
And this crackdown continues.
Illegal alien gangs have been targeting the homes of NFL players, we find out, according to the Daily Caller.
I mean, we've been reading all about these NFL players.
Tom Holman says that the Haitian illegal who vowed he'd never return to Haiti is being returned to Haiti.
And he was trashing Trump and praising Joe Biden and Barack Obama.
The judge that blocked Trump's birthright citizenship reform gave an anti-cop rioter, according to the Justice Department website, who tried to burn down a Seattle police headquarters, a slap on the wrist, two-year sentence.
Gee, just because you're appointed by a Republican doesn't mean a whole hell of a lot.
Los Angeles suburb, unanimously voting to become a non-sanctuary city to support Donald Trump.
On the other hand, then you have other cities vowing to fight Donald Trump.
I mean, this is insanity.
It's not my job, says the sheriff vows that Vegas police will not assist with Trump's illegal immigration roundups.
Why not?
That's called enforcing the law, the law enforcement.
ICE, you know, it's pretty unbelievable.
Massachusetts district is instructing school bus drivers to harbor illegals from ICE.
By the way, James Carville has spoken out.
He's calling on Joe Biden to disappear into retirement, warning if he tries to steer the party forward, it will have a negative impact.
Your last act was terrible.
Just get out of the way.
Your party is moving on.
And he's not wrong.
And he said he should go to his home in Rehoboth in Delaware and just stay there.
Ouch.
Not exactly the nicest goodbye from James Carville.
James Comer warning that the Trump DOJ now has the power to subpoena Joe Biden's personal bank records, and they should.
Trump pulled the plug on Anthony Fauci's security detail.
After all we know about what he knew about the origins of COVID, I believe he flat out lied to us.
I want a full investigation and he can't plead the fifth.
Anyway, we got so much news to get to.
Oh, and by the way, Kamala Harris and her husband were caught using plastic bags after going to the grocery store, but they wanted to ban plastic straws.
You can request, by the way, and you can have reusable bags because I like the reusable bags.
I buy them and then I bring them with me.
I know I'm like a little old lady when I go to the grocery store.
Linda, I know you're laughing because I buy them and they're much stronger and they don't break.
And the plastic ones and the paper ones break.
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