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March 19, 2025 - Sean Hannity Show
39:01
Putin and Trump - March 18th, Hour 3
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If you want to be a part of the program, the president has this conversation.
We do have a readout of the conversation that took place today.
And joining us to discuss and talk about it is Rebecca Koffler, strategic military intelligence analyst, formerly with the U.S. Defense Intelligence Agency.
She is the author of the best-selling book, Putin's Playbook.
Great to have you back.
Rebecca, I'm sure you read the readout as I did.
What is your overall take on it?
Well, Sean, I'll cut to the chase here and mention the most important thing, which is a huge accomplishment by President Donald Trump.
There's a lot of fluff in this readout, typical Russian Diplo talk, but here, and I'm going to quote the most important part, in the context of the U.S. President's initiative to introduce a 30-day truce, the Russian side identified a number of significant points.
The agreement was made that there will be a mutual refusal of the parties to the conflict to strike energy infrastructure facilities for 30 days.
Vladimir Putin responded positively to this initiative and immediately gave the Russian military the appropriate command.
This is why, here's why it's important, Sean.
The Russians have been pounding Ukrainian infrastructure for three years to the point where 50% of it is destroyed.
And that is the assessment of the United Nations.
Why is that?
Because Putin wants to make Ukrainians' lives a living hell.
I frankly, as an intelligence officer, I was not anticipating this kind of breakthrough, but Donald Trump made it happen.
Well, the readout specifically says, I know the provision in which you are referring to, and this is in response to the president's recent appeal to save lives in Ukrainian servicemen surrounding the Kursk region, where there were reports, contradictory reports, to be very fair, that Vladimir Putin might have had a lot of Ukrainians surrounded, and they were pretty much sitting ducks.
But during the conversation, Trump put forward a proposal for mutual refusal of the parties to the conflict to strike energy infrastructure facilities for 30 days.
Vladimir Putin responded positively to that initiative and immediately gave the Russian military the appropriate command.
He also reacted constructively to the idea that Trump of him implementing a well-known initiative regarding the safety of navigation in the Black Sea.
And it was agreed to start negotiations for additional study on specific details.
And they talked about a prisoner exchange as well.
Yes, absolutely.
The prisoner exchange was also big.
Putin committed to releasing tomorrow, March 19th, the Ukrainian prisoners and the Ukrainians will hopefully agree to release the Russian prisoners, 175 to 175.
23 seriously wounded Ukrainian servicemen are being treated in Russian medical institutions and will be transferred as a gesture of goodwill.
So Putin is playing ball with President Trump, which, in my assessment, is the only U.S. president whom Putin fears.
And with whom Putin will agree to deal on a transactional basis.
It's because President Trump, unlike former President Joe Biden and Kamala Harris, who were continuously exasperated by Putin's recalcitrance, they called him a killer, they called them this and that, basically showing their frustration.
President Trump is methodically trying to accomplish his goal, and he is making progress because he knows how to deal with Putin.
He has seemed to have found the key on how to conduct transactional business with the former KGB officer that nobody so far has found the key to working with.
One thing that might be a sticking point, if I was on the Ukrainian side of this and I'm on the side of this has got to end, how many more people need to die and how much more destruction do we need?
Because there's not going to be a Ukraine left if this continues for an extended period of time, in my humble opinion.
And if we could get a peace in Europe, I think it would be beneficial.
Maybe a sticking point would be Russia's desire for a need to stop any mobilization in Ukraine and any efforts to rearm their forces in Ukraine, which I don't believe that Russia would be capable of participating in on their end.
They'd have that time to rearm while they're demanding that Ukraine not have that right.
Exactly.
That is consistent with my intelligence assessment, Sean.
That is some of the conditions that Putin is trying to place on the Ukrainian side.
No more mobilization, no training of Ukrainian soldiers, and no more foreign military aid.
And that is going to be sort of an uneven situation because the Russians, on the one hand, Putin has mobilized additional thousands of troops to the maximum allowable by the Constitution.
Actually, even above the maximum allowable by the Russian Constitution, they are right now at 1,350,000 troops compared to, let's say, the U.S. military, which includes also the National Guard, is about 1 million, right?
So, and the Russians are now out-producing the entire NATO alliance in terms of materiel, military hardware.
According to NATO Secretary General himself, the Russians in three months are producing more missiles than the entire NATO alliance, including the United States, in the entire year.
And that is something to think about.
Well, I think it's a lot to think about.
When I interviewed Zelensky, President Zelensky, I said, I pushed him hard, and it was before the rare earth mineral deal.
I assume now that that has been completed.
I've never seen an official verification of that, but I believe that there's been an agreement on that part.
But assuming that that happens, and he was, he kind of dodged all the questions, I said, you do understand that any negotiated settlement will likely include you're not going to be a member of NATO, although having the partnership with the U.S. would ensure a U.S. presence in Ukraine, which I think would be very helpful to their security.
It would also provide them with the rare earth mineral deal, the monies to rebuild Ukraine.
The second aspect of it was there's probably going to be more land that will end up in Russian hands.
You have the Donbass region, for example, which my understanding is was, what, 80% Russian anyway, not even able to vote in those elections, correct?
In Ukrainian elections.
Yes, correct.
Well, Zelensky has ruled out, at least for now, holding the elections all together, and the Ukrainian parliament backed him up.
And that is because Zelensky invoked a martial law and it's against the Ukrainian constitution to hold elections during the war and this sort of thing.
But the guy is very, very a talented actor, I would call him.
So he is, even though he doesn't have any cards, like President Trump said, he is trying to continue the flow of U.S. billions of dollars into Ukraine.
And so it really remains to be seen how open he is going to be, Zelensky that is, to come through on his part of the deal and actually save Ukraine.
And you're absolutely correct, Sean.
If he doesn't, then there will be absolutely nothing left of the country to save.
I mean, that's the scary part.
I mean, there's been so much death and so much destruction.
At the end, what's going to be left?
And especially if the United States is not going to commit hundreds of billions of taxpayer dollars to basically end up being a proxy in this war, Europe has not stepped up and contributed their fair share as far as I'm concerned.
No, they absolutely haven't.
And look, the truth is, is that if the Europeans were stepping up to the plate, if they paid for their own security, as President Trump, you know, during his first term, asked them to do, even was compelling them to do, if they started doing it 10 years ago, which is when they knew about what he was going to do, I breached them personally, then Putin would have never invaded.
He didn't invade during President Trump's first term precisely because President Trump understands Putin's strategy.
And he took a series of measures that basically mitigated the strategic vulnerabilities that we have because of our reliance on technology.
That was the actual point why Putin was feeling very emboldened to invade Ukraine because he knew we couldn't step in, right?
Because he kind of boxed Joe Biden in with his nuclear card.
But during President Trump's term, they didn't do that.
And one point on Zelensky, just something that you mentioned, and you're absolutely correct, the security guarantee that Zelensky was demanding from Trump, he was too duncan and too dumb,
I would even say Zelensky, to kick up that on the fact that President Trump was offering him security guarantee, not in the NATO membership, but by placing U.S. businessmen onto Ukrainian soil to start the exploration of those critical minerals.
And that was President Trump's backdoor way of ensuring those guarantees because Putin would not dare strike those areas where U.S. businessmen were because the Russian intelligence knows that our red line has always been if you target U.S. personnel wherever it is on U.S. soil,
you know, that to be or even outside of the U.S. in foreign territories, when you target U.S. personnel, they'll be held to pay.
But Zelensky, unfortunately, was too dumb to recognize the art of the deal that Donald Trump was offering to him.
So with all that said, where do you see this going now?
I mean, there have been those that have speculated that Putin is just going to want to drag this out as long as possible.
Does Putin ultimately see the wisdom in ending this considering their economy is in shambles?
They have more people leaving the country because they don't want to be signed up to fight in this war or this conflict.
It's not a popular conflict.
Where does it end?
So you're correct.
Putin does see the wisdom in ending this, but it's going to take time and Putin wants to end it on his term.
And the situation is that as President Trump admitted, Putin has all the cards.
I think President Trump is being a little too generous with him by saying that, but I think it's because President Trump knows what buttons to push with Putin.
You know, he's trying to keep him on his good side.
We do have some cards.
We don't have too many, but we do have some.
It's going to be a very gradual process.
And Putin likes to, for example, look at this.
He is also wanting to be seen next to President Trump, right?
That's why he's likely asking.
It's not in this readout, but I have through my sources that Putin is wanting a meeting in person with President Trump.
He wants to be seen with the leader of the Free World.
He also requested in this readout to organize a hockey match between the United States.
I saw that between the U.S. and Russia, which actually I would love to see as a hockey fan.
I would love that too.
I'm a huge hockey fan, Sean, as well.
That would be fantastic.
I also watch now different MMA, you know, the UMC, Dana White's outfit, and all the fights between the Russians and Americans.
And those are actually excellent.
And if Moscow and Washington were able to emulate that type of relationship that the Russians and the Americans have right now, like for example, when they are in space, the International Space Station, right, they're able to work together hand in hand as colleagues.
Or the relationship that the athletes have, you know, for example, during my MMA, the Russians and Americans can beat the heck out of each other, the USC fighters.
It's almost like a scene from Rocky, what was it, Rocky Five or whatever number it was.
All right, Rebecca Koffler, thank you.
800-941-Sean, our number, if you want to be a part of the program, we're awaiting the return of SpaceX and the rescue mission of the astronauts that have been nearly 300 days in space, 286 to be specific, and they're only supposed to be there eight days.
I am told, and we've been told, that they're going to have a pretty tough time adjusting after being in zero gravity for such a long period of time.
That's not what their training was for.
They were there for an eight-day trip.
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Hi, 25 now till the top of the hour, 22 minutes away from an anticipated splashdown and recovery of the stranded space station astronauts.
We're going to be going in and out and listening to some of the NASA coverage.
Obviously, there's a partnership there, but honestly, SpaceX has taken on most of the responsibility of this.
But the two astronauts, 286 days in their space odyssey, and this has been a 17-hour, now 21 minutes until we expect a splashdown.
And we expect Wilmore and Williams wearing SpaceX pressure suits to land.
They're now in their 27-minute free fall, is what I understand, Linda.
We'll get to that in a second.
And the spacecraft will plunge back into the discernible atmosphere for the final 12 minutes of descent, making a parachute-assisted splashdown.
It's expected to still land at this time at 5:57 p.m., 2.57 on the West Coast.
And a SpaceX recovery ship will be stationed nearby to haul the spacecraft on board so the crew can be helped out of the Crew Dragon's cabin and onto the stretchers for initial medical checks.
As I went through earlier, there are significant medical issues that, especially if you spend a prolonged period in space, that these astronauts will go through.
We'll dip in and out of NASA's coverage here.
And all prayers are with these guys on their final descent and anticipated safe splashdown.
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Want to remind you that we have Elon Musk on Hannity tonight.
We'll be talking about this stranded, these stranded astronauts now returning to Earth and other topics of the day involving him.
And it's really sad that somebody that has helped so many people is so hated, and I can't think of a reason why.
It makes absolutely positively no sense at all whatsoever.
These astronauts, assuming they can land safely in, you know, literally, what is it now?
20 minutes, less than 20, 19 minutes, you know, is because of SpaceX.
And he's the chief engineer, and he's a genius behind it.
A guy that dreams of going to Mars, a guy that has successfully done this many, many times.
And the only times you ever hear from liberals is they cheer a new rocket that he's testing out that may not go successfully well or be successful.
You know, now we have incidents of shootings.
They're shooting into Tesla dealerships.
They're burning Tesla cars on dealer parking lots.
They are burning charging stations around the country.
And they're doing everything they can do domestic terror-wise to hurt this man.
What has he done?
Help the people in North Carolina when they had no communications.
The same with people in Tennessee.
The same with people in California.
You know, now he's rescuing astronauts.
He's also working.
He created one of the most technologically advanced cars ever to be made, which is the Tesla, which has 1,000 horsepower, the version I'm getting, and goes from 0 to 60 in 2.0 seconds and has self-driving capability, meaning you just put in your address and you don't do a thing.
Amazing technology.
And he's advancing the human condition.
He's doing that with robotics and artificial intelligence that maybe one day all our menial tasks at home will be done that way.
He's working with Neuralink in the hopes that one day the blind might be able to see and people with spinal cord injuries can walk.
So why is he hated?
Because he's friends with Donald Trump and he's identified all the corruption, waste, fraud, and abuse, now over $100 billion identified by Doge in Washington.
What else has he done to cause such hatred and vitriol and these vicious attacks?
That's why I'm giving away a Tesla.
I am buying a Tesla for the winner.
You can win it right here on this show.
Today is the first day of our contest.
And every day, you, my listeners, will have a chance to enter the keyword of the day that's heard on the show.
If you listen every day, I'll give out the keyword.
You simply go to Hannity.com.
You go to the contest page, and that'll take you to the entrance page.
You can enter once a day.
Today's word of the day is American.
Why did I pick American?
Because it's the most American-made car in the entire country.
Anyway, good luck to all of you.
You get one chance to win a day.
We take this through, I believe, April the 11th, and then we'll pick a winner.
And I think they have seven days to claim their car.
We'll try our best to get in touch with them.
So, Sean, we have some updates just so you know, because we're listening to this, but I didn't want to interrupt you because everybody wants to know about the Tesla contest.
But they're just getting into the part, I guess, of space where they have no signal anymore.
So, they just gave sort of an update to say, hey, we're heading into the no signal zone.
So, once.
It's going to go on for several minutes.
They describe this in great specificity.
I've read all about this today, yes.
But now they've updated and they're actually going to be landing at 5:51 East Coast time, 251 Pacific time.
And they will splash down off the coast.
Nine minutes away.
In the Gulf of America.
What better?
In the Gulf of America.
And by the way, they actually at NASA said that.
When we get communications back, let me know.
And just pray that we have a good splashdown on this.
Look, imagine, and I'll get into this with Elon Musk tonight on TV, but imagine everything that has to go perfectly here.
We have watched the launch of this rocket.
We'll show you the video tonight.
We saw the rocket is recovered and it has a system to land gently and successfully back on Earth.
You know what, Sean?
Why don't we do this?
Not to interrupt you, but just so we don't take this phase up.
I know it's my job.
I apologize.
You pay me to save the docking video.
No.
You saw the return takeoff video over here.
I really do need to interrupt you, though.
I want to be able to air this.
And in order for us to do that, I think that we should do our read, say goodbye now, and come back on the other side and then be live till the end of the show so that we don't interrupt anything that's happening with this landing with reads or anything.
Okay, we can do that.
Okay.
So everything so far, and I'll get to this first, everything so far has gone perfectly.
The launch has gone perfectly.
The docking, we saw those videos when they docked at the International Space Station.
We saw the rocket landing and literally gently just placing itself down on Earth.
I mean, amazing engineering.
We saw the return.
It was a 17-hour trip.
It'll be a little less than 17 hours now.
And then now we are waiting for the splashdown and we will have a successful mission and literally recovery of two astronauts that have been lost in space.
Is building up on the exterior of the capsule, generating heat in excess of 3,500 degrees Fahrenheit.
So we are unable to communicate or command the spacecraft at that time.
And that includes, unfortunately, video feeds as well.
So as soon as we get the views back inside Dragon, we will bring those to you.
But until then, we are going to stand by and continue to monitor the progress of Dragon.
Like Sandra just said, we are anticipating the blackout period to begin at 2.51 p.m. Pacific time, 5.51 p.m. Eastern Time.
This will last for several minutes.
It's not super exact, even though we are predicting acquisition of Signal or AOS to come back at 5.51 p.m. Eastern Time.
In the past, we have regained communications sometimes a little bit earlier than that.
So we'll probably start to hear CORE begin to hail Crew Dragon a minute or two prior to that anticipated acquisition of Signal.
But right now, Nick, Sonny, Butch, and Alexander are touchscreen displays where the current operation and future operations will be displayed as they are able to monitor Dragon's progress continually.
As I said before, Dragon is autonomous, meaning it is flying itself.
So the crew stands by and monitors and those touchscreen displays are what will be allowing them to do so and prepare for events such as parachute deploy.
And while on board the International Space Station, Nick, Sonny, Butch, and Alexander contributed to over 900 hours of science and research investigations, which is really the key purpose of the International Space Station.
Now, the International Space Station is celebrating a major milestone this year where they will be celebrating 25 years of continuous human presence in November.
So if you're younger than 25 years, you've never known a day where there hasn't been a human living and working aboard the International Space Station contributing to key science and research investigations that impact our lives here on Earth.
There's research being done on Parkinson's, on osteoporosis, on cancer research, and a variety of other studies.
Additionally, the microgravity laboratory provides a jumping off point for us as we venture back to the moon and onto Mars through longer duration spaceflights.
One such example that the crew worked on during this mission was an alternative exercise device.
In microgravity, the crew has to exercise for about two hours a day because they're not having the effects of gravity on their body.
So to prevent bone and muscle loss, we counteract that with two hours of exercise per day.
On board the International Space Station, they have three ways in which they can exercise.
They have a bike, they have a treadmill, and they have a similar to a weightlifting machine that counteracts the microgravity environment.
But a particular experiment that this crew tested out was a combination of all three of those in one smaller device.
And this is really critical as we continue on to the moon, Mars, and beyond because space is really important in spacecraft.
So if we have something smaller that the crew might be able to utilize, that can potentially help us venture out even further into the solar system.
So science is really the name of the game when it comes to the International Space Station.
Some of the other science highlights that took place during this increment that are particularly interesting to me was we had the first wooden satellite that was deployed.
This is a study to see if other materials might be more resourceful or renewable in space.
So I'm really excited to see the results of that one as well.
Additionally, we had a couple of spacewalks that took place to not only provide maintenance to the International Space Station, but also where we swabbed the outside of the space station near vents to see if any microbes that we all have microbes on us to see if any of those could survive in the harsh environment of space, which again is very important for us to know and understand as we continue to the moon, Mars, and beyond.
Very exciting stuff.
Now, at this point, we have now entered the communications blackout period for the Dragon spacecraft.
This lasts approximately seven minutes due to plasma formation around the spacecraft itself.
During this time, no vehicle telemetry is received by mission control or the recovery team, and no external commanding of the vehicle or voice communication is possible.
But as a reminder, Dragon is designed to fly itself.
During reentry, the vehicle will be slowing down from orbital velocity, which is approximately 17,500 miles per hour.
The top temperature that Dragon will experience upon re-entry is 3,500 degrees Fahrenheit.
This blackout period, as I said before, we expect it to last about seven minutes today, concluding at 5.51 p.m. Eastern Time or 2.51 p.m. Pacific Time.
We right there have our first view of Dragon Freedom coming home to Earth.
And that view is from the WB 57, which is one of NASA's high-altitude planes that is tracking.
Now, because of the way that this camera is configured, it does look like it is dark, but it is indeed daytime.
And you're beginning to see that plasma trail as Dragon re-enters the Earth's atmosphere.
All of that is expected.
We are anticipating an acquisition of Signal around 2:51 p.m. Pacific time.
So, just minutes from now, and you may hear the Corps begin to hail out or call Dragon for communications and see if we can potentially get communications with them a little bit earlier.
Following this, we'll have two events in rapid succession.
We'll have the Drogue parachutes deploy at 2:53 p.m. Pacific, followed by the Mains just one minute later at 2:54 p.m. Pacific time, ahead of a splashdown at 2:57 p.m. Pacific time off the coast of Tallahassee, Florida.
All right, we're listening to NASA right now just to update you.
This is the most incredible thing you've ever seen.
It really, I'm trying to describe this for you because you have this telescope that is able to now follow and track it.
They're in a period of where the plasma surrounding what will be their splashdown vehicle that prevents the communication.
So, right now, it's a silent period that they go through, which has to be a little bit scary with the fact that they can track it.
And while the image looks like it's nighttime, it is not.
It is obviously daytime because this is going to splash down in the Gulf of America, just off the panhandle near Tallahassee in Florida.
A couple of things to watch out for is as they make re-entry, you know, they will hit a high temperature.
It's designed and engineered to withstand a temperature of over 3,500 degrees, nearly 2,000 miles per hour, if you want to talk about speed.
And at about 250, well, about 553 in about a minute, they expect the launch of the first parachute and then the launch of the second and final parachute, which will slow the spaceship as it then descends into splashdown.
And it is still scheduled at 5:57 Eastern Time, just as we're going off the air, exactly on time, what we were told it was going to be today.
I went through this earlier today, and the astronauts themselves will really face a lot of physical challenges upon their return.
There was supposed to be an eight-day stay.
It turned into a 260, what, seven, 200, I'm sorry, 286-day stay.
And when they come back, because of the unexpected time they spent, it's going to make it that much more difficult.
And they may face a variety of health problems.
They might have weaker bones and muscles.
They might experience vision issues, what's called baby feet, which I described earlier.
I'll describe it again.
Their bodies have to adjust to being back with the planet Earth's gravity.
The astronauts splashing, you know, this is after splashdown.
And Williams and Wilmore, the two astronauts, American astronauts that were kind of abandoned in space, arrived there last June, were supposed to stay for eight days.
They were forced to remain in orbit.
Well, now we have the reconnection.
NASA is now reconnected with the astronauts.
They are, wow, they're literally, let's see, three minutes away from splashdown.
And we just saw an image of them in Space Dragon, SpaceX Dragon, in their capsule, getting ready to develop.
But what happens is as they remain in orbit, you know, you can actually gain in height while you're up there because there is this phenomenon where Your bones, literally, your spine will stretch and it can lead to back problems on the other side of that.
There can be vision issues.
You can have bone and muscle loss.
Bones become about 1% less dense.
Okay, we now see the capsule making its descent.
It has re-entered our orbit.
We are now about two and a half minutes away from splashdown.
It's incredible.
The first two parachutes have been deployed successfully.
In about a minute, they are supposed to deploy the third one.
And at that point, the capsule looks like it is on target for a perfect landing and an on-time perfect landing.
The visuals on NASA are incredible.
If you can get to a TV, Fox News has just put it on.
And NASA is streaming it.
If you want to go to nasa.com or just go to Hannity.com.
We have images of it there.
It looks like if we get one more deployment of one final parachute, it looks like this mission will be a complete success.
Our prayers are with the astronauts.
As we heard right there, Commander Nick Haig will be calling out the altitude of the Dragon capsule from here on out.
Landing in water is simpler and provides more margin against unlikely parachute issues.
You can see those parachutes continuing to slow the dragon capsule down.
Two more parachutes have been deployed successfully.
You're looking at water.
We're about a minute and 10 seconds away from landing.
From splashing down off the coast of Tallahassee, Florida, splashdown two minutes from now at 2:57 p.m. Pacific.
We do have four healthy mains really doing the job there.
Just breathtaking views of a calm, glass-like ocean off the coast of Tallahassee, Florida.
Crew 9, just minutes away from splashing down.
This is really such an incredible shot.
About 600.
That was the live view from our recovery vessel.
Megan, which is stationed a couple miles away from the old splashdown site.
We are literally seconds away from splashdown.
Elon Musk will be on Hannity tonight.
Steve Witkoff, who's been negotiating with the president, he was there during the negotiations with Putin today.
Stephen Miller will be on tonight.
We have full coverage.
We'll get Elon's take on all of this any second now.
You can see that the capsule has slowed down and we expect a successful splashdown.
Thank God.
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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.
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