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March 19, 2025 - Sean Hannity Show
32:01
Future of Ukraine - March 18th, Hour 1

Sean covers the potential cease fire between Russia and Ukraine and just how much progress was made today toward peace. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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If you would like to join us, we start out with hope and good news today.
The two American astronauts that were stranded and abandoned in space by Joe Biden and Kamala Harris are set to return to Earth.
Honestly, it's now at 557, just as we're going off the air, which is a little depressing because I would love to talk about it immediately.
The good news is that Elon Musk will be on Hannity tonight to talk about it.
And for that, I'm looking forward to it.
I do know, believe it or not, you may not know this, Our own Sarah Carter is so into space stuff.
I mean, we're going to talk to her in a little bit about it.
But the Starliner astronauts, Barry Butch Wilmore and Sunita Williams undock from the International Space Station earlier today for their now long-awaited return to Earth.
As I said, nearly 300 days.
They were only supposed to be there eight days, 286 days if you want to be specific.
And anyway, wearing white SpaceX pressure suits, Wilmore and Williams waved farewell to their space station crewmates before floating into the Crew Dragon ferry ship for a long overdue return to Earth.
And they are now sharing the 17-hour ride home with the Crew 9 Commander and a cosmonaut as well, uh, who were launched to the station last September aboard the same SpaceX crew dragon capsule carrying all four of them home.
Now the flight plan called for an automated seven and a half minute deorbit thruster firing starting at about 51 to slow the ship down for reentry after a 27-minute free fall.
I mean, this is amazing technology.
It just is it's scary too.
I mean, I've uh I I can take on a lot of pressure, the but having the people's lives in my hands is not something that I really want to take on.
But it was the spacecraft is expected to plunge back into the discernible atmosphere for the final twelve minutes of descent, then making a parachute assisted splashdown off of Florida's panhandle and Gulf Coast uh a few minutes before 6 p.m. at about 5 57 schedule time as of right now.
The SpaceX recovery ship will be stationed nearby to haul the space uh craft on board so the crew can be helped out of the crew dragon's cabin onto stretchers for initial medical checks.
Um talking to people that know a lot more about this than I do.
Their understanding is that these two astronauts that it only remember they're their planned mission was for eight days, and they will have a tough time adjusting.
They've been in zero gravity uh to the gravity that we all experience here on Earth.
It will be quite an adjustment, not an easy adjustment, because that's not what they train for.
And so our hope and our prayer today is that by the end of this show um that they land safely and can be reunited with their family sooner rather than later.
Uh, we'll continue to to m well watch this throughout the day today.
Um, let me get into the the details uh of President.
We have a readout from the Trump Putin phone call from earlier today.
And uh long story short, if I had to say one thing that really struck me and and kind of jumped off the page to me was Putin's agreement to Donald Trump's proposal to suspend military strikes on Ukraine's energy infrastructure.
Uh and if implemented, this agreement would represent a genuine de-escalation in this three-year war in Europe.
And the Russian president agreed to the proposal by President Trump uh to stop attacks on each other's energy infrastructure for 30 days, ordered Russian military to cease them.
Russia has been pounding Ukrainian energy installations, their electric grid throughout the year.
Kyiv has responded with damaging strikes on refineries and fuel depots.
If em implemented, this agreement would represent a real jet de-esc uh de-escalation and hopefully the beginning of what would be the ceasefire that would end in a negotiated settlement.
During the conversation, the president put forward a proposal for the parties to the conflict to mutually refrain from doing this for 30 days to start.
Vladimir Putin responded uh positively to the initiative and immediately gave the Russian military the corresponding command according to the Kremlin.
On the proposed wider truce, Putin reiterated concerns that he had raised last week according to the Kremlin's readout.
They said the conversation between Putin and Trump had been a detailed and frank exchange of views.
It said Putin had underlined that a resolution of the conflict must be comprehensive, sustainable, long term, and take into account Russia's own security interest and the root causes of the war.
That's Vladimir Putin negotiating the settlement uh even in the the lead up to a ceasefire.
He also said has apparently responded constructively to the Trump initiative on protecting shipping in the Black Sea.
The two sides agreed to begin negotiations.
So hopefully that'll happen.
You know, and the and the Kremlin said Russia and Ukraine would conduct another prisoner exchange.
Let me give you some more of the details because I have a longer readout here in front of me.
But they they did have a frank exchange.
They confirmed the principled commitment to a peaceful resolution.
That is progress.
The president of Russia declared his readiness to work with American partners carefully and Study possible ways for a settlement.
They want it again to be comprehensive, sustainable long term, and take into account the unconditional need to eliminate the root causes.
Uh these are the territorial claims, I'm sure, by Russia.
I've said this now for the longest time that in my view, a negotiated settlement would probably end and look something like this: that the rare earth mineral deal with Russia with the U.S. and Ukraine would result in a U.S. presence that would help security for Ukraine in the long term and simultaneously provide a financial benefit for both countries.
One, Ukraine could pay back the United States for the hundreds of billions that we have already gave them for the war.
Number one, number two, it would provide valuable necessary monies to start the process of rebuilding a country that has been pretty much half destroyed.
If this war continues, there's not going to be a country left fighting over.
The only thing that would be left are the minerals and and whatever natural resources exist in Ukraine.
So the president's, you know, begun the process of a 30-day truce.
The Russian side identified their significant points.
The one big sticking point that I picked up out of this the Russians wanting the mobilization in Ukraine and any potential rearming of forces in Ukraine to stop during this 30-day truce, which to me would be only advantageous to Russia because they would likely be taking that time to re-arm themselves.
Um they emphasize that the key condition for for preventing escalation and working towards a resolution uh would be complete cessation uh cessation of foreign military aid and the provision of intelligence to Kiev.
Um that would have to happen in my view at the end of any negotiated settlement.
That would be the end game because Russia's not going to stop their intelligence gathering.
Now, as it relates to some other humanitarian considerations that came up during the conversation, uh, and the Russians were willing to guarantee life and decent treatment of soldiers of the forces in Ukraine.
Uh number one, Donald Trump put forward a proposal for the mutual refusal of the parties to strike the energy infrastructure for 30 days.
Then they expressed the idea, the president expressed the idea of the safety of navigation in the Black Sea.
It was agreed to start negotiations for additional study on specific details of that agreement.
Vladimir Putin informed uh apparently agreed too that on March 19th, that would be tomorrow, that Russia and Ukraine will exchange prisoners, 175 people, in addition, 23 seriously wounded Ukrainian servicemen that are being treated in Russian medical institutions would be transferred.
Uh, and the leaders confirmed their intention to continue the efforts to re achieve a bilateral settlement in Ukraine, including taking into account their proposals.
Um, a couple of other interesting developments in this.
They touched on other issues involving the international agenda, the situation in the Middle East, the Red Sea region.
Joint efforts are going to be made to stabilize the situation at crisis points, established cooperation on nuclear nonproliferation, global security issues.
This in turn would contribute to the improvement of the general atmosphere of American Russian relations.
And one of the positive examples is the solidarity vote in the UN on the resolution on the Ukrainian conflict.
The only reason President Trump went in that direction is for one reason only, because he wants to get peace in Europe.
I don't know what happened to the left in this country.
I thought they were the ones chanting and singing all we're all we're saying is give peace a chance.
The last thing that came out of this was pretty interesting.
Um they did express a mutual interest in normalization of bilateral relations in light of Russia and the United States and the responsibility for ensuring security, stability around the world.
Uh a number of ideas going in the direction of development in the prospective mutually beneficial cooperation in the economy and energy were discussed.
And then lastly, the president supported Vladimir Putin's idea of organizing hockey matches in the U.S. and Russia between Russian and American players playing in the NHL and the KHL, which, as a hockey fan, I kind of like that idea a lot.
So definite progress.
There's no doubt about it.
Is there a deal?
No.
Um is there a breakthrough?
I would argue, yeah, there's definitely a breakthrough.
Um we have another developing situation.
Here's Elon Musk and SpaceX.
You know, hopefully, in less than three hours, the stranded astronauts will be back on Earth safe and secure.
And we have the Las Vegas Review Journal providing video of Tesla vehicles once again at a dealership, engulfed in flames after a Vegas police say they were set ablaze by an individual early this morning.
Now, this on top of previous attacks on a Vegas Tesla Center.
This on other attacks around the country.
Um remember, yeah, the North uh Colorado woman, you know, was arrested after causing five to two hundred twenty thousand dollars in damage to another Tesla dealership.
We've seen bullets being fired into Tesla dealerships.
We've seen Molotov cocktails igniting cars in Tesla dealerships.
We've seen charging stations put ablaze as well.
You know, the bullets fired directly at the Tesla dealerships.
Massachusetts, seven Tesla charging stations were intentionally set on fire.
Uh graffiti founded a Tesla dealership in another location in Maryland, also a Massachusetts, one man accused of vandalizing several several Tesla vehicles with stickers of musk in Brookline, calling it free speech.
In Portland, Oregon, seven shots fired at a Tesla dealership, damaging three cars and shattering windows.
North Colorado police reported an arson at the Loveland Tesla dealership.
In New York City, you had 350 protesters show up for their Tesla takedown.
And, you know, what has this guy done?
He helped the people of North Carolina, Tennessee, and California out when they had no outside communications with the or communications with the outside world.
He's built what is the most American-made car, six six different Tesla models, most American-made of any car company in the country.
I thought liberals loved electric vehicles.
Well, they hate him what for his association with Donald Trump.
They hate him for the fact that he's identified waste fraud abuse and corruption.
That's why they hate him.
And for that now, there are threats against his life coming in on a regular basis.
People making public threats against his life.
And that's why we started our Tesla contest.
And is this a good time to mention it?
Anytime is a good time to mention a contest where you give away a free car.
All right, I'm gonna give away a free Tesla.
And by the way, this is the coolest car.
Over a thousand horsepower.
It uh goes from zero to sixty in two point zero seconds.
It's self-driving, it's the most American-made car.
And it's not Elon Musk that's gonna get hurt here.
It's gonna be the people that work at the dealerships, and it's gonna be people that work on the line that have high-paying jobs that will likely lose those jobs if this boycott, now endorsed by MSDNC and conspiracy theorist Rachel Maddow.
Um, every day you that listen to the show will have a chance to enter the keyword that I will give away during the show.
You listen every day, I'll give out the key word of the day.
You go to Hannity.com on the contest page, it will take you to the entrance page.
You can enter to win once a day.
Today's word, American.
Why?
Because it's the most American-made car.
Keyword American Hannity.com.
If you want to enter, you can enter once a day every day through the contest.
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Now, I saw that John Roberts weighed in, you know, on the issue of this judge, he's You know, this is a really, you know, I'm I'm kind of surprised that he did, and it's somewhat out of character, but this judge ruling as a matter of law, because you know the idea that the Alien Enemies Act,
which was passed by Congress, signed into law in 1798, it is well established.
This is this has been reviewed by the courts numerous times.
You have four different presidents that have invoked it.
Three of them were Democrats in the 20th century.
Woodrow Wilson, Harry Truman Truman used the act well after both world wars had ended.
And the you know, this particular act, the Aliens Enemies Act, permits a president to arrest and remove without a court hearing, an alien enemy whenever there is a declared war or a predatory incursion perpetrated or attempted or threatened against the United States.
And And Greg Jarrett spelled this out very well in his column, pointing out something I had not known is that in 1948, the U.S. Supreme Court did uphold Truman's use of the law and ruled that the law itself was constitutional.
Hence why, you know, when the chief justice of the Supreme Court weighs in just on his own without anybody asking, it makes you wonder why.
Um, especially since the Supreme Court and Supreme Court precedent exists involving this very act.
You know, it's the high court stated a president's decision under the act procludes judicial review of removal order.
In other words, a judge's second guessing of the president doesn't and should not happen.
And the president invoked this act under the predatory incursion provision, and 260 illegals were promptly deported to El Salvador, many of them under the authority of the of the AEA.
And they include suspected murderers, rapists, other violent criminals, gang members, kidnappers, you know, people involved in extortion, human drug weapons trafficking.
And a substantial number of those expelled were no members of the Venezuelan Trendaraguan, which has been officially designated a foreign terrorist organization.
They unlawfully infiltrated the U.S. conducting irregular warfare and undertaking hostile actions against the U.S. And this is yet another hill that it appears that the left wants to die on.
You know, but you know, it it just doesn't matter.
The predatory incursion if it's perpetrated, attempted or threatened against the United States of America, then the president of our country, the commander in chief of our country, shall make the public proclamation of the event,
and that means that all native citizens subjects of the hostile nation government, whoever they happen to be, being males of the age of 14 years and upwards, who shall be within the United States, not actually naturalized, shall be liable to be apprehended, restrained, secured, and removed as an alien enemy.
And the president shall be, and here is he is hereby authorized in any event by this proclamation thereof to direct the conduct to be observed on the part of the United States towards the aliens who shall become liable and the manner and degree of the restraint to which they shall be subject, in which cases upon which the security their residence shall be permitted, et cetera, et cetera, for removal.
It's not that it's not that complicated.
But this is exactly what the president did.
And the president is a hundred percent right.
By the way, Sarah Carter, who joins us at the top of the next hour, back in December, she did an interview with the president of El Salvador.
Well, actually, the interview was with the El Salvador Minister of Justice and Public Safety.
And he was very clear that El Salvador was willing to take back illegals.
And yesterday, President Trump said we won't forget the fact that the president of El Salvador took back these illegal immigrants, and they can gang they can they can jail them much cheaper than we would be able to do so in America.
The Obama judge that ordered the return to the uh of the Venezuelan gangbang bangers back to the U.S. Same guy, by the way, that led a top FBI lawyer who fabricated critical Russia-Gate evidence off the hook.
This this very same judge.
He happens to be the same guy that gave a free pass to a top FBI lawyer, you might remember the name, Kevin Kleinsmith.
Remember, he was the one accused of fabricating the critical evidence and the Russia gate probe, and then used it, and that was the information that was used, rather, to give false information to the Pfizer court.
Now all the people that signed the Pfizer warrants years later said, oh, knowing what we know now, we wouldn't have signed it.
But they were all warned in August of 2016, before the election, not to trust the information that it was political in nature, and they were warned by of all people Bruce Orr.
Remember his wife worked for, I believe Fusion GPS, if my memory serves me well, but it's not, you know, it's not just the judge that gave this guy a slap on the wrist.
You know, this whole thing was fabricated, and look what it did to the country for three years.
You know, the only person charged in the Justice Department investigation and the origin probe of the Russia gate.
You know, former FBI attorney Kevin Kleinsmith received the sentence of twelve months probation, 400 hours of community service from this judge during a video hearing, and he admitted in June of 2017 that he sent an altered email to an FBI agent that indicated a target that, well, actually, I think that's the wrong word.
I think they indicated a target of a court ordered FBI surveillance, and that former Trump campaign advisor was Carter Page, was not a source for the CIA.
That was a false statement.
The false statement passed along as the FBI was applying for a third extension of the surveillance warrant on Page, which was a backdoor door to everything Trump world.
My view of the evidence is that Mr. Kleinsmith likely believed that what he said about Mr. Page was true.
By altering the email, he was saving himself some work and taking an inappropriate shortcut.
Wow.
Guess we know where this judge is coming from.
Um but this is this is now what this country is up against.
Pam Bondi has vowed to defy this judge that halted the deportation flight.
She said that the judge was attempting to meddle in national security and foreign affairs and can't do it.
There is now an effort that is building that may result.
One House GOP lawmaker filed impeachment articles against the federal judge who ordered the Trump administration to stop deportation flights.
I think that's going to be hard to pull off, but you know, with that said, I think it's it's basically being made as a matter of principle.
You know, unlike Democrats, I'm not the biggest impeach, impeach, impeached, but this judge is clearly not following Supreme Court precedent and the precedent of four former presidents.
White House says the deportation flights left before the judge's order.
And with all that said, the judge is asked absolutely apoplectic about all of this.
And he goes ballistic as a Trump lawyer is revealing why the administration ignored the order to turn around the deportation flight, saying that they were out of U.S. airspace, which I'm sure they probably were.
But, you know, we'll find out over time what happens here.
But, you know, it's it is why are people fighting to keep in this country?
If you can explain this to me, please call it.
Because I don't understand it.
The judge goes the judge slammed the lawyer representing the Trump administration, puts him under oath, you know, because this plane load full of illegal immigrants were sent to El Salvador.
More than 200 suspected gang members, many part of the Trende Aragua gang, illegally living in the U.S. They don't have constitutional rights in spite of what the left is saying.
Anyway, he slammed the excuse, you know, because Trump's lawyers in court said that any plane already in the air must turn around and return to U.S. soil, but a later written ruling was less specific on those details.
Anyway, the judge slamming the excuse, summarizing the administration's position as, well, we don't care, we'll do what we want.
The Justice Department attorney said the administration believes that we complied with the order.
The judge hits back saying that an order is an order, regardless of whether it's written or provided orally in a courtroom.
You're saying that you felt that you could disregard it because it wasn't a written order.
He called the Justice Department's argument a stretch and was ordered to answer a series of questions about the incident, including how many people were in the air at the time of his order when it was handed down, but he refused.
He called, he cited national security concerns, saying, I am only authorized to say what we have said.
The judge then ordered him to turn over answers by noon today, including an official explanation of why he would not disclose the information on Monday.
He said he would put I mean, do you see where this is going?
I mean, this is absolutely insane.
You know, Marco Rubio reacts to the judge's order.
El Salvador's president and the U.S. Secretary of State, Marco Rubio appeared to celebrate the deportation flight that carried the illegal immigrants out of the country even after a federal judge asked for the plane to be turned around.
Oopsie, El Salvador president said on social media and a post promoted by Marco Rubio.
They're not going to take this crap from these, you know, Obama-appointed judges that don't believe in precedence, don't believe in the rule of law.
And I'm not sure why John Roberts even bothered to weigh in.
I think it was inappropriate.
I really do.
On the economy, Donald Trump has moved to free the coal industry from restrictions imposed by environmental extremists, saying yesterday he was authorizing the administration to use coal-fired uh power plants for energy production to counter China's economic advantage.
Good move by the president.
That'll be good for our economy.
New study shows that Biden's inflation reduction act will ultimately cost taxpayers almost five trillion dollars.
And this is an insane amount of money.
That's 12 times the stated cost.
Now, this study from the Cato Institute concludes that subsidies are undermining innovation, driving investments towards subsidy farming rather than satisfying consumer demand.
Over the next 10 years, the IRA could cost the taxpayers anywhere between 936 billion and 1.97 trillion.
By 2050, it will cost up to 4.67 trillion dollars.
By the way, Donald Trump pulled the plug on Hunter Biden's 18 agent taxpayer-funded Secret Service detail.
After he was seen, I guess he went off, I don't know, where he took his trip.
Where did he take his trip to?
Do you remember?
In South Africa, he went to South Africa.
Hunter Biden is in South Africa.
So is Alan DeGeneres, by the way.
Yeah, but he can't afford, you know, the lawsuit that he started against somebody, and he had to pull out, pull back from that lawsuit.
By the way, the media is lying.
One last thing on the Alien Enemies Act.
They're lying when they claim it's only been used during wartime.
That's all you've heard the last few days.
That's not true.
They say it's only been invoked three times.
It's actually four times, and that it was done during wartime.
But of course, the state-run legacy media mob, which is dead, that the they just don't know it yet.
You know, you can go back to James Madison during the War of 1812, Franklin Delano Roosevelt, Harry Truman.
Um, I forget the other one I just mentioned.
I think it was Hoover.
But it's been four presidents, and then the last one ended up in a Supreme Court case.
And in that case, the court allowed him to do so in a landmark case that stands today.
Unbelievable.
We have assaults on ICE agents have jumped by 300%.
Uh 300%.
Democrats coaching illegals on how to resist deportation.
And we've got to get to the bottom of who is tipping off these illegals.
We've got to get to the bottom of it.
It's critical.
Anyway, 800 941 Sean, if you want to be a part of the program.
Remember, you can win a Tesla on buying a Tesla for one lucky winner, and you'll get to pick which one you want.
Every day you have a chance to enter the key word heard on the show.
You listen every day.
I'll give out the word of the day.
You go to Hannity.com, you go to our contest page.
That page will take you to the entrance page.
You enter the word of the day.
Today's word is American.
Why did I pick American?
Because Tesla's the most American-made car of any car manufacturer.
All right, good luck.
What I got is a thousand horsepower, zero to sixty in two seconds.
The most American-made car in the country.
And it's self-driving.
I'm pretty excited.
I hear from friends of mine that you actually like feel your organs like you feel the force of this thing.
It's so powerful.
Anyway, I love technology.
I just do.
Go to Hannity.com and the word of the day, American.
You want smart political talk without the meltdowns?
We got you.
I'm Carol Markovich.
And I'm Mary Catherine Hamm.
We've been around the block in media, and we're doing things differently.
Normally is about real conversations.
Thoughtful, try to be funny, grounded, and no panic.
We'll keep you informed and entertained without ruining your day.
Join us every Tuesday and Thursday.
Normally on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.
I'm Ben Ferguson.
And I'm Ted Cruz.
Three times a week we do our podcast, Verdict with Ted Cruz.
Nationwide, we have millions of listeners.
Every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, we break down the news and bring you behind the scenes inside the White House, inside the Senate, inside the United States Supreme Court.
And we cover the stories that you're not getting anywhere else.
We arm you with the facts to be able to know and advocate for the truth with your friends and family.
So down a verdict with Ted Cruz now, wherever you get your podcasts.
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