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Jan. 31, 2025 - Sean Hannity Show
33:54
What Happened in DC? - January 30th, Hour 2
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Well, we'll come in to your city wanna play our guitar and send you a contra.
We'll all be tired.
Highland of jail.
And if you want a little bang in the yin yang, come along.
People that were sending out the criminals that the illegal aliens coming from their countries were taking them back.
They're going to take them back fast.
And if they don't, they'll pay a very high economic price.
An arrest of quote 50 illegal aliens right there.
Alex.
Yep.
We call them undocumented immigrants.
So sorry, I think they could do something.
I don't know what to do.
Freedom is back in style.
Welcome to the revolution.
Yeah, we're coming to your city Gonna play our guitars and sing you a country song Sean Hannity, you're listening New Sean Hannity show.
More behind the scenes information on breaking news and more bold inspired solutions for America.
All right, thanks, Scott Shannon.
Hour two, Sean Hannity Show, 800, 941 Sean is on number.
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The President was just in the Oval Office dealing with and he's right about this.
We don't know whether the DEI um hiring practices of P. Buddha judge in the Harris Biden administration had any impact on this particular case.
We just don't know.
We just know that under Buddha Judge that they came up with language.
It was on the website of the FAA up until the twenty second of January of this year.
Uh that they did have up there very specific language that said people that suffer severe intellectual disability, psychiatric problems, and other mental and physical conditions under a diversity and inclusion hiring initiative spelled out the agency's website.
Now, does that mean in any way that this in impacted what happened in this case?
We nobody knows.
We don't know.
But the president went on to say what I was saying is that those criteria should not be a factor in hiring anybody that is an air traffic controller or works in the FAA.
And now learning from John Solomon, just the news.com, the the midair collision between this American Airlines passenger jet and this Army Black Hawk helicopter was preceded by months of near misses at airports all across the country, as well as increasingly shrill warnings that the nation's air traffic control and safety system was stretched to the limit.
And regulators acknowledged this, that in 2023 there were 19 serious their their description, near misses at U.S. airports, and that they could have been catastrophic.
One of the largest totals that we've had in years.
And only 14 months before what happened last night at Reagan National.
The FAA received a safety expert report that warned America's air traffic control system is suffering from quality control issues, staffing shortages that's putting safety at risk.
Now, what was the president's point?
He goes, you need very the top people in these positions.
And you know, he said he's gonna get to the bottom of it uh immediately.
And these DEI practices are finished.
You have to hire the best people for the job.
That's all there is to it.
And um, you know, it things like this can be avoided, and we want them to be avoided.
Anyway, joining us uh now to discuss uh John Scott is with us.
Uh of course, John hosts the Fox Report every Saturday and Sunday, 6 p.m. on the Fox News channel, been a colleague of mine my entire time at Fox News.
He's a private pilot himself, Marine Corps Colonel William Bernard Dunn is with us, a military attack helicopter pilot was flown in and around DC.
Uh, we welcome you both to the uh program.
Uh John, I'll start with you.
You've been a pilot for a long time.
This has been a passion of yours for a long time.
It has, yeah.
I've I've loved aviation since I was a kid.
Yeah.
Let's talk about, you know, uh first of all, John Solomon's report is very alarming to me that There have been all these near misses and at historic levels at airports around the country, you know, that seems to now be looking back in hindsight at the canary and the coal mine, uh, but things like this really can be prevented if we we take proper control of the skies.
This is a preventable accident.
Right.
And and just about every aviation accident is preventable.
Um you know, it's rarely the situation where one thing happens that causes a flight to go down.
It's not, you know, normal for a plane to go up and the wing falls off or something like that.
It usually one small mistake leads to another, leads to another, leads to another.
And I think uh some of that is is clearly visible in what happened last night, and I'm sure it will be outlined in the eventual NTSB report.
Yeah.
And then let me bring in uh Marine Corps Colonel William Verner Dunn.
Uh every aircraft has what's called a TCAS system, a traffic collision warning system.
And I'm I'm I'm just a little bit surprised because in helicopters and in any jet in this particular case, they have very sophisticated avionics and warning systems.
And the redundancy is very good.
And and you would imagine at some point that both the helicopter and the the airliner jet were being warned by the system, and somehow something didn't work in this case.
Uh any theories of what might have happened, or is this like most cases when you have a crash, it usually is pilot error, or it could be air traffic control error.
Uh yeah, and Sean, thanks for having me.
I watched the video today of the impact.
Um, you know, one thing if if you have a TCAS and you're in an airport area, you know, that T cast is going to be going off over and over again.
And it's very logical that sometimes a pilot becomes very insensitized to it and may even turn it off, uh, which would not be necessarily unusual in this instant.
Uh the Tass, what should have prevented this aircraft mishap, is the pilot seeing the other aircraft and the air traffic control.
And I am not pointing fingers at anybody, but I have flown uh Cobra aircraft right around uh national uh Reagan National Airport before.
And normally when you're flying a helicopter out there, you'll have a limitation of being you have to stay a hundred feet or below, or at least when I flew out there, they did.
Uh this aircraft was substantially higher than that and actually flew right in the flight path of the jet.
So the pilot should have been able to see it and the crew should have been able to see it, as well as the air traffic controller should have made sure they had uh clear avoidance.
Yeah, I mean uh and use and in every case, correct me if I'm wrong, the the jet that is on a track towards a landing uh and and descending and about the land, they always have the the first right to continue their flight.
It would be the obligation of the helicopter pilot to get out of the way, would it not?
It it would, absolutely.
And in aviation, the the aircraft that's the most maneuverable has got the requirement for separation.
So the helicopter's way more maneuver, substantially more maneuverable than the jet, and the jet's on a path and they can't maneuver very well.
So without a jet and the airplane and the jet has the right of way under FAA rules, right?
Absolutely.
And they're both uh they both should have been under positive control.
Uh I I heard that there has been calls to the helicopter and they didn't respond, which could have meant they were dealing with something inside the cockpit.
And we don't have voice data recorders in our military aircraft, which I've been pushing for for some time.
Uh we need to get them in there.
That alone could have told us what happened in this particular incident.
A couple of Yeah, what is your reaction, John uh Scott, to the the fact that the jet, the airplane had the right of way under FAA rules, and especially since it was on an approach for a landing.
It absolutely did, and uh there is a frozen zone, if you will, above an airport um anywhere anywhere below or I'm sorry, above the three-degree glide slope angle that incoming aircraft have, and they have the right of way.
Um the chopper was on what's called Route 4 along the east bank of the uh Potomac River there, supposed to be limited if they are flying north of the Woodrow Wilson Bridge, supposed to be limited to a maximum of 200 feet basically above the river.
The impact took place at about 350 feet.
So the chopper was definitely higher than it should have been.
Now it was a gusty night.
It was clear but it was gusty and it can be difficult to hold altitude in very gusty conditions.
That's one of the factors that that's going to be uh involved here.
But Colonel Dunn I wanted to ask you did your military helicopters have the TCAS system.
I was speaking to a friend who used to fly top gun for the Navy and uh and then became a commercial pilot for years.
Excellent pilot but he said he is of the opinion or of the belief that uh the the military craft do not have TCAS and therefore would not have been able to talk to the American jet.
Well my Cobra did not have TCAS I know some of the trainer aircraft in the Navy and the Marine Corps do have TCAS and like I say the T cast in this scenario for the helicopter would not have done much good in my mind.
It would have done a lot for the for the airliner but the helicopter's low to the ground and if if you're in a you know if you're in an airport setting there's multiple airplanes flying taking off flying around in especially in the DC area it it's just going to become overwhelming.
So I don't know if this particular Black Hawk had it.
I do know that some of my peers that have flown aircraft with TCAS will turn it all the way down or shut it off.
In some aircraft, I'm assuming you can shut it off.
I don't know.
But if they shut it off, obviously it does no good.
But because that noise is saturating the cockpit, which is one of the causes of a mishap is cockpit saturation.
Right.
Colonel, let me ask you.
Pete Hanks has commented the military does dangerous things it does routine things on a regular basis.
Tragically last night a mistake was made I think the president is right there are some sort of elevation issue that we have immediately begun investigating at the DOD how do you interpret that's no doubt in my mind that this was an avoidable mishap.
As John mentioned most mishaps when you when you peel back the onion they are avoidable.
The altitude, you know, any quality pilot should be able to hold altitude even in the worst conditions.
And Pete Hegseth, Secretary Hegseth, said that this was an experienced crew doing an annual training.
So I know plenty of pilots that have flown in terrible conditions, and they can hold their altitude.
So other than a situational awareness blip inside the cockpit that caused them to climb, you know, I don't see that they couldn't hold because of gust or wind unless there was an emergency in the cockpit, which the investigation will hopefully determine.
in And hopefully they'll figure out what exactly went wrong.
When you look at the video, John Scott, and this is very common, by the way, the helicopter was sort of perpendicular and maybe requested, for example, it would not be uncommon for a bird or chopper to cross a runway with permission of the air traffic control and that they'd be cleared for that.
And thinking it was an inactive runway or the helicopter pilot got his position wrong, or we don't know the answer to any of these questions at this point, but the last reported position, the airplane was just outside the runway.
It's possible or is it possible the helicopter was cleared on the adjacent runway, and somehow things got mixed up.
I mean, at that point, do we have to begin to look at air traffic control and see if they played a part in this?
I think there will be blame to go around, eventually assessed, Sean.
We talked about the fact that the airplane was going to be able to go around, fact that the the the uh air traffic control called out to the helicopter and did not get a response well I have since learned that um uh the systems or the the the monitoring systems that we rely on in the news business to uh you know to to give us those air traffic recordings, they are not allowed to monitor the military frequencies, the UHF frequency.
When when the tower calls um when they key their mic, they are broadcasting both on military UHF frequencies as well as civilian VHF frequencies.
So the fact that the tower called and did not and we did not hear a response from the Chopper is completely understandable because it's not allowed to record those UHF responses.
Now I have heard the response on a UHF frequency, and the uh the chopper pilot was saying Um Yes, I see the CRJ, and I will I believe he says it's a bit garbled, but he says I'll maintain visual, meaning I'll maintain visual contact and stay out of his way.
W wasn't there also an instruction to fly behind the jet?
Yes.
Yes, and and as soon, almost as soon as that instruction took place, as soon as it was given, um that's almost the moment the impact happened.
So I think um that he was looking at the wrong aircraft.
The chopper crew was looking at the wrong aircraft, thought they were well clear of it, and didn't see the aircraft that hit them.
The other thing, Sean, I would just say quickly is that um air traffic control was not very precise.
They normally should say, you know, PAP 25, which was the call sign of the chopper.
Do you have the traffic at your 12 o'clock?
They didn't say that.
They said, Do you see the CRJ?
And um and the Chopper pilot said yes, but again, he was probably looking at the wrong jet.
I'll give you the last word, Colonel.
Uh uh, you know, I agree with that assessment.
Uh I have been I I took off on a Alta Cottom airfield in Iraq one day and I got clearance to take off.
At the same time, air traffic control authorized a C seventeen to land on the opposite runway.
And the only way we didn't hit was just a little bit of luck and a little bit of grace of God.
Uh I think we're gonna find out that in this instance, uh it's it's gonna be a either mistaken uh aircraft, like hey, I see it, but I'm looking at it, and and we use very specific terms in the cockpit.
You know, I see the bird is not acceptable.
I see the aircraft on final is how you would have reported that.
Um I I've heard the president's discussion about potential DEI.
I pray that had nothing to do with it.
Uh if it did, every American should be outraged if it had anything to do with this mishap in any form or it didn't say for sure, but he did point out we went back and looked at the DEI regulations implemented by Pete Buddigudge in the Harris and Biden administration, and I gotta tell you it's it's it's kind of alarming.
You know, I I would not have ever imagined that they would have directives as they did you know that mandate people with psychiatric problems and severe intellectual disabilities and mental and physical conditions,
uh you know be given special consideration for hiring and in such important jobs, and I'm all in favor of non-discrimination against anybody, but this is a job that were required the best person.
And those considerations I don't think would factor in, but there's no indication, as I said, that this has been a factor here.
We appreciate both of you.
Uh Colonel, thank you.
John Scott always.
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Anyway, the president was in the uh Oval Office.
We'll tell you about that when we get back a bunch more straight ahead.
Exposing government waste and abuse of your liberties every day.
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I twenty five till the top of the hour, eight hundred nine four one Sean Our number.
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Um look, the the it's predictable everything that has gone on, as I I told you on Monday and Tuesday of this week.
Just buckle up because this is gonna be the Democrats reverting to form.
We see it both in the state-run legacy media mob, and we see it with Democrats.
Democrats are angry.
They went from a state of utter shock and confusion, uh, and and they've now entered a different stage of I don't know, grief, call it whatever you want to call it, and they're in the anger stage, the rage stage, even.
And you see this on display, and I predicted it would happen this week in the hearings with RFK Jr. and Tulsi Gabbard and with uh Cash Vitel today.
And by the way, they're not really laying a hand on them.
They're just they just they love to hear themselves speak and yell and scream and not let these people give an explanation, nor do they care about context or texture to a comment that they may have made in the past.
Uh, but but all of that is predictable.
It really is.
I was watching, you know, RFK Junior taking more questions today.
You know, they they never paid attention to him saying there's no such thing as Republican children or Democratic children.
There are kids.
66% of them are damaged.
I'm not here for a position.
I don't need this.
I have a great life.
I want to do this because we need to fix it.
But you do have people, you know, that are receiving hundreds of thousands of dollars and sanctimoniously screaming at at Robert F. Kennedy Jr., it gets a little nauseating.
Let's go to the hearings.
Uh this is Robert F. Kennedy Jr., you know, saying that that you know, being attacked by Democrats, and then saying there's no such thing as a Republican child or a Democratic child.
Will you commit not to fire anyone in the health arena who currently works on protecting Americans from cyber attacks in their health care files?
I will I will commit.
Based on your opinion, based upon your opinion or your political agenda, or Mr. Trump's political change.
Based upon my opinion.
Are you supportive of this?
I've had nothing to do with that.
Are you supportive of these ones?
I'm supportive of vaccines.
Are you supportive of these this closing, which is militantly anti-vaccine?
I I am supportive of vaccines.
I'll comply with all the ethical guys.
That's not the question.
You and I, you have to be a very good thing.
You're asking me not to do vaccine.
That's exactly what you're doing.
Look, no one should be fooled here.
When I launched my campaign, it was about uniting Americans, Democrats and Republicans.
There's no issue that should ignite us more than this chronic health epidemic.
There's no such thing as Republican children or democratic children.
These are our kids.
I'm not here because I want a position or a job.
I have a very good life and a happy family.
This is something I don't need.
I want to do this because we're going to fix I may I mean you cannot dispute the reality.
America has a health problem.
America has an obesity problem.
America has a diabetes problem.
America has, you know, coronary artery disease problem, a cancer problem.
America, you know, if you look at the numbers, well, you know, why do men in Japan live ten years longer than American men?
And I understand that a lot of people they don't want to put in a way they don't a lot of people don't care about their diet.
Fine.
You Robert F. Kennedy was clear.
He's not taking away your McDonald's, your Kentucky fried chicken.
And I eat these things occasionally.
I don't eat it every day because I want to be a little healthier.
And but you know, we can do better.
We can also have a health care system that does better, that does more preventative medicine.
We're not using modern technology, we're not using telemedicine anywhere near the level we need to.
These healthcare cooperatives, we're not using them.
We're not using medical savings accounts.
Anyway, that's why we brought back our friend from Wichita, Kansas, Dr. Josh Umber.
Uh he's been watching these here hearings, but he's also not successfully employed concierge care at very affordable rates.
He started it in Wichita.
Now he's bringing it nationwide.
And he also has helped, you know, I I think well over a thousand other medical groups to open up the concierge care.
In his case, there's no deductible, no copay.
At the time it may have gone up, I don't know.
It was $50 an adult, $10 per children, unlimited doctors' visits, 24-hour availability of a doctor, no network restrictions.
Payments go directly to you.
Payments can be used for any expense.
Full transparent pricing.
You can enroll any time.
Um, and you couple that with maybe a catastrophic plan, and and you're on your way.
You're gonna have a lot better care than what Obamacare offered you.
Anyway, Dr. Umber, welcome back, sir.
How are you?
Hey, thank you very much for having me on.
And uh of course, uh our hearts go out to the families of the uh people that went in, you know, perished in this plane accident.
Uh very terrible situation, very close to home.
Um but no, thank you for for that's close to home, but my understanding is they flew out of Wichita, is that correct?
They sure did.
And thankfully, no one that uh we're directly connected with, but I'm sure as we learn more, we'll we'll find connections between people we know.
Wichita is full of great people, and it's a tight knit community, as you know, and uh yes, our hearts go out to all these families.
We've been talking about it today, uh, you know, we just talked about it in the last half hour.
It's just terrible and uh it's sad to see.
And and we've we've got to bring safety back to the sky.
But I also want to make America healthy again, and I don't believe America is doing anywhere near the job that it's capable of doing.
You know, watching these um Senate hearings, I was struck with this idea uh that we agree on really a lot more across these political parties than we disagree on.
And understandable they're very concerned about vaccines, and I'm a strong supporter of uh pediatric vaccines and whatnot.
But that's just a a small portion of this.
Do some kids have negative reactions, you're the medical doctor, not me, to vaccines.
Does the mercury in vaccine does is there any connection as some claim to autism or no?
No.
I mean one, they've removed the mercury from the vaccines and the studies are overwhelmingly supportive of the fact that these don't cause fac um autism and really that are we overvaccinating people for example.
You know now they they you know years ago you only had a few vaccines now you've got my understanding is well over a hundred well I I think it it it's a risk-based analysis right um you can you take the plane crash and the FAA has I think a record number of years without uh a civilian mortality and then this so but that now we have an incident and now we want even more protection.
So, you know, what number of sick kids are we willing to accept?
A very small number.
And we don't want infectious disease spreading through our country.
But, again, that goes to the larger example of how do we make our country healthy again.
And both sides.
Like he said, there's not Republican or Democratic patients.
There's just patients, just people.
And a sick person has one dream, right?
And I love that quote because even though we may disagree on some things we can agree that the system needs to be fixed.
And Republican and Democrat centers both brought up problems with Medicare and Medicaid.
And they have different ideas of a solution but they both want it fixed.
They both want health care to be easier faster cheaper better.
So if we start looking at it like that then I think we can unite around ideas like direct primary care that you know we deserve a 10 X improvement in health care quality and and affordability accessibility and if we can have a private space race I think we could eliminate COPACE.
Alright quick break we'll come back uh more on the RFK hearings and alternatives to better health we'll continue more with Dr. Josh Umber, the head of Atlas Direct it is a uh healthcare cooperative now that has gone not gone nationwide is started in Wichita, Kansas more on that on the other side.
We continue now with Dr. Josh Umber talking about RFK in his hearings and talking about alternatives to traditional medicine uh eight hundred nine four one Shawn is our number Atlas direct is the company he is building out nationwide out of Wichita Kansas there's nothing really that the government is running particularly well um their best their their best argument would be the defense department but there's a lot of waste fraud and abuse there but you know government involvement Medicare in is headed for
insolvency as is Social Security our schools are a disaster they can't keep law and order in in towns and cities I don't put a lot of faith hope and trust in the government however I do want this audience to know that there are better options out there and Atlas MD which you put together now called Atlas Direct because you're now bringing it nationwide is a whole different way of looking at health care.
Tell us what the difference is well I think it's a smarter way of doing it.
Right the the the I like to say the government's not bad.
They're just bad at it.
They don't have a mechanism in place to necessarily drive things to better pricing better efficiency the way the market does.
And we just don't use the market in health care and I appreciate the argument that healthcare is very important.
it shouldn't be market-based, which I would say is so important.
It has to be market-based.
Let's say if I signed up for your plan that you started in Wichita, which was locally where adults paid $50 a month, access to a doctor 24-7.
Most medical procedures could be taking place, $10 a month for kids.
You got a 90% discount on any prescription medicines that you'd need because you negotiated personally directly with pharmaceutical companies so people wouldn't have to go to their local pharmacy.
And what's the difference between what you're doing you started in Wichita with what you're now bringing nationally?
Well that's the best part uh it's it's nearly the same.
Now we're helping thousands of doctors do their own version of our clinic So prices might vary from clinic to clinic, but we've never changed our prices since we started in 2010.
What insurance company can say that, right?
But then we are able to negotiate better than the government?
Like how is that possible?
If Walmart has a $4 a month list, we have a $4 a year list.
That's just like you said, you want your listeners to know there is a better way.
And if we can't fix the price of health insurance until we prick fix the price of health care.
But once you do that, once you find a way to have uh $50 a month, unlimited visits, home visits, work visits, telemedicine visits, no co-pays.
Like people hate copays.
And so a good business model removes that.
What what happens if you get the cancer that lasts for ten years?
What happens if you get the bad accident that keeps you in a hospital for a year?
What happens if, you know, you have the heart attack or a stroke and you need long-term care?
Well, you know what?
That's that's exactly what insurance is for.
Uh is for the big, scary, unpredictable things.
Not now, most insurance won't cover you for a year, but even Medicare doesn't do that, right?
And so you're when you're designing an insurance plan, it's tricky.
You've got to say how much risk are you willing to take.
But um Amy Finkelstein, um MacArthur genius grant award-winning economist has a great book, uh, We've Got You Covered.
And in there, and from 2023 numbers, she mentions less than one percent of the people account for 30, 40% of health care spend, but even they only spend around a hundred thousand a year in health care.
So the numbers who spend way more than that are minuscule relative to everything else.
So we design a SMART plan that covers everybody for the common stuff and then tries to add you know insurance supplement for uh I I just urge people to open their minds, health care cooperatives, health savings accounts, catastrophic care uh for the for big things, if God forbid something horrible happens.
And and there are solutions and and RFK Jr. raising questions.
He's pointing out what we all know.
The system sucks and it's broken.
And our health care and then do everything you can do in your own life to to have better health.
Uh, Dr. Josh, we appreciate you.
Uh you're thinking out of the box, and and I wish the government would listen to you more.
800 nine four-one Sean is on number if you want to be a part of the program.
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