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It is amazing that some people get it and then some people will never get it.
And what do I mean by that?
In my free state of Florida, this state has been transformed because of conservative policies being implemented at the highest level under Governor Ron DeSantis.
And with the help of President Trump, they've been a great one-to combination.
And for whatever reason you always have those Republicans, I don't want you can call them establishment, maybe inclined to being Republicans in name only, institutionalists, you know, that even you may you're making all of this success, and then there becomes a resistance to what is been so successful and necessary to change or to take it to the next level.
And it is bizarre.
I'm watching in my free state of Florida, and I I do this as a cautionary tell for other states that have made so much progress implementing, for example, either American first or a state first agenda.
And for whatever reason, in recent months, there has been some kind of I would describe as more rhino republicans in the Florida House, and a a bit of tension has emerged, reflecting a deeper power struggle within the state's Republican Party.
And I'm I'm having a hard time comprehending why, you know, these guys in Tallahassee are pushing back on very key aspects of the governor's agenda.
For example, stalling his preferred condo reform bill, and it became a big deal.
You might remember the condo build building fell down in Miami and also rejecting his special session on immigration in favor of crafting their own, which is a far less aggressive bill.
On top of that, the House advancing their own sales tax cut plan.
Well while Governor DeSantis is saying no, the biggest problem in Florida has been, especially in the coastal areas of Florida, is property values because of the great migration have gone up uh dramatically, and as they have gone up, so too have property taxes, which is now, you know, literally threatening future growth in the state of Florida, and they still have.
We still have at least another 10, 15 years of significant migration with baby boomers retiring.
And anyway, so uh I thought I'd bring on Governor DeSantis as a sort of maybe a canary in the coal mine that you've really got to keep your foot on the gas and keep people honest at all times.
Governor, great to have you back.
How are you?
Yeah, good.
You know, Sean, I've been on many times with you talking about how we used to be a swing state.
Now we have 1.2 million more Republicans than Democrats, and so you know that that's a success, but it also creates its own challenges because I think people realize unless you're in like a really deep blue part of Florida, you can't get elected with a D by your name.
You gotta run as a Republican.
And so I think what's happened though, even though we have the largest Republican supermajority in the history of the Florida House, uh, I think we have a far less conservative agenda.
In fact, I would say it hasn't been conservative at all, because I think you have a lot of those people who really aren't true believers who are in positions of power right now.
Think about this.
One of the things that we bled on better than any other state is getting the indoctrination out of our universities, eliminating DEI, eliminating the woke, making sure that we put people in positions, both professors and university presidents, who are going to believe in the classical mission of what a university should be, not the nonsense we see at Columbia and all the other places.
And the Wall Street Journal, even a month ago, was talking about the things that President Trump is correctly doing to hold the universities accountable nationwide.
And they say, you want to know what he wants to do?
Just look at what Florida has done.
Florida sent the blueprint from that.
Every conservative in America is like, hallelujah, hallelujah.
Yet in the Florida House, they are trying to advance legislation to roll back the conservative reforms that we've instituted at universities, and in fact, they want to totally cut us out of being involved in helping select university presidents, which you would end up having is that would be a lifeline to the left, and they would end up going liberal uh once again.
And then, of course, on property tax.
You talk to these people, I talk to all the folks.
They want property tax relief.
Uh they're proposing uh a plan that is being rejected in the Florida Senate anyways, but it would grant a lot of relief to tourists and non-residents and stuff.
And why would we not want to focus relief on Florida residents?
You did bring up the immigration.
You know, I called the special session, I said we need to have all state and locals helping President Trump with deportations.
They rejected it, fought me on it, they got big blowback, finally we got it done, but it's an issue after issue.
And so basically, I think what their agenda is is is twofold.
One, they have a whole host of bills they're trying to push through to enrich liberal trial lawyers, which will increase your costs, increase uh cost to businesses, and ultimately mean less jobs, so not good policy.
And then two, they just want to oppose me.
So the reason why they did their tourist uh tax cut is because I was talking about property taxes, and they don't want to do the things that I'm doing, even though all I'm doing is Governor, haven't you ever traveled abroad?
Did you ever look at what they charge you if you rent a hotel room in another country in terms of uh a visitor tax?
It's it's insane.
But meanwhile, everybody still goes to those places.
Everybody's still gonna come from the Northeast and the Midwest down to Florida in the middle of winter so they can get some relief.
Not only that, we've had all these liberal groups try to do travel advisory saying, don't go to Florida since I've been governor.
When I became governor, we were typically getting about eighty to ninety million visitors a year.
We just set the record last year, 142 million visitors to Florida, and so that helps the economy, and it's also bad for traffic and some other things, and we're working through that.
Uh but we have this golden opportunity to give people property tax relief and then uh just have more of the tax burden go on people that aren't residents of here, that are tourists, foreigners and all this stuff.
Uh, and they don't want to do that.
So this is just what it is.
But here's what what I've learned in this in this line of work.
If you run for office, you tell people what you're gonna do, and you get in and do it and follow through, even people that disagree with you, they do respect that.
What voters really get upset about is when you run saying you're gonna do certain things, and these guys all ran saying they were gonna support the Florida success story, support the Florida model, support conservative policies.
But then when you get in and you don't follow through, and in fact you stab your voters in the back, that is when we have some serious, serious problems.
And so there is something rotten in the state of Denmark when it comes to the Florida House of Representatives.
This is not the type of conservative governance that we saw under the three previous legislatures with the three previous speakers since I've been governor, and I think this is the least conservative agenda that the Florida House has pursued since Republicans took the majority way back in 1996.
And voters need to know that that's what's going on.
I think These guys think that they get in the Tallahassee bubble and they can do whatever the hell they want to do uh without any recourse from the voters, and that's just not true.
I think everybody has um a real significant voice.
Oh, one more thing they're doing, Sean.
I think you'll appreciate this.
You know, we all believe in draining the swamp.
Draining the swamp in DC, also draining the swamp in Tallahassee, which we have done.
Part of the things President Trump's trying to do, he's trying to move bureaucrats and agencies out of Washington rather than have them all there.
We've done that in Florida.
They're actually pursuing in the Florida House a bill that would render our agency heads ineligible unless they live in Tallahassee.
So our surgeon general, Joseph Latipo, great surgeon general, he doesn't live in Tallahassee.
By the way, he's been a rock star, and he's he's not afraid to tell it like it is in uh we can go back to COVID with him.
So we want people outside of Tallahassee.
So they basically have this bill.
It's it's basically refill the Swamp Act.
Why would you want to fire Surgeon General Joseph Latipo, and yet they're doing it, and it's all just to try to attack the success that we've done, and that's not what they told the voters that they would do, but that is how they're choosing to use their power.
Almost every person that you're talking about, and I know who these people are and I know what they're up to, and I've been following it closely, but I think it is a case study that people have to be forever vigilant.
And I told people after the last election, you know, don't think you can vote for Donald Trump and walk away and think you did your job because there are going to be moments where your voices are gonna need to be heard.
Um but what really makes me mad, because I followed these races, and again, it's a case study I think for other conservative states, they've got to be forever vigilant, is almost all of them without fail ran as Trump MAGA DeSantis conservatives.
They ran on really being transformational and consequential.
And now all of a sudden I'm getting report after report after report that uh they're abandoning the very things that that brought them to the dance, and that really makes me mad.
And it should, and it should make a lot of voters mad.
I mean, we didn't even have a supermajority uh when I first got elected.
Twenty twenty-two we had the big 20-point tsunami, and we swept in a lot of folks to be able to come in and serve, and yet they have this supermajority and they're not taking on the left.
I mean, my view is no state has done better at beating the left across all these different facets of American life than we have in Florida.
Uh I want to continue to keep the left at bay.
I don't want to give them a lifeline, and yet the Florida House of Representatives, these Republicans there, they're giving the left a lifeline.
They want to re-wokeify the universities.
They're doing things that is not in keeping with what we promised voters we would do.
Uh, and that is a huge, huge mistake uh that they're doing.
So look, you are a new convert to Florida, Sean.
You know how different it can be.
Well, in f in fairness to me, I've owned property down here for almost 28 years.
So um uh yeah, I mean, and you gave me a hard time about you keep threatening, when are you moving?
And I moved.
But you dealt with New York as a resident for how long?
You see Oh, it was awful.
It was uh I was kind of trapped there because of my kids, to be very honest.
Yeah, but but when this goes, it goes, and it's tough.
And so I think there's just a lot of Floridians who who maybe have moved here uh since I've been governor since COVID, probably millions of them who who love the state, love the way it's governed, and they all I think a lot of them take it for granted because this is all they know, right?
Well, I think what you're seeing in the Florida House is no, this is not something that is set in stone.
Uh we can have a chance to solidify and build off the success, which is I think what our voters want us to do, but you absolutely have the possibility of squandering that success and reverting back to where we would be a purple state and we're one election away from from having a Democrat come in and really uh ruin things.
Do you really think even with the significant advantage that Republicans have now gotten in terms of voter roles that there would even be that possibility?
Not m I I I don't think maybe right now, but these things kind of move, and I think the danger is is when you have folks pursuing uh a not conservative agenda when they're joining with Democrats to oppose a conservative governor, uh that causes enthusiasm amongst the base to really dwindle.
That's just the reality of it.
And so if that's the kind of agenda they're gonna pursue, we're gonna continue to lose enthusiasm.
I think the registration would probably start to go the other way.
It doesn't happen overnight, but what happens is, you know, sometimes you have tough political environments.
Uh If you have lack of enthusiasm and the Dems are hopped up and they start pouring a lot of money in here, who knows?
I don't think that'll happen today.
Uh, but I think we're kind of at a time for choosing in Florida.
Do we double down on the success?
Uh, or do we piss it away for pursuing this ridiculous agenda that nobody voted for?
That really kind of scares me.
I I think the greatest compliment that that maybe you're getting is when I watch Vivek Ramaswamy who's running for governor in Ohio.
Remember, Ohio and Florida were swing states.
They they were the two states to watch, not any longer.
So states can make swings politically.
Um, but he's running on your entire agenda.
He wants to compete with you.
He wants to compete with us.
And I'm like, whoa, whoa, slow down, mister.
Uh I hope you do well, but not that well.
Well, we've got uh you could throw a dart at a map of the state of Florida, and you will definitely hit someone from Ohio.
You know, sometimes like the New Yorkers go to Ohio.
Ouch, Florida, the uh mothers Southwest Florida is all Midwest.
You're right.
Everywhere, but Ohio just seems to be everywhere.
It's really really crazy.
Look, my my my mom's from Ohio, and my wife's from Ohio, so that you have both of those.
But I do think if you look just since I've been governor, we led on the issues, and then you did have a lot of other states that stepped up.
Uh, we tended to be the one to get out in front first on a lot of these issues, which is fine.
And we played a really important role in in creating, I think, uh a great era of conservative governance, particularly in response to the Biden administration.
And oh, by the way, Sean, you and I talked.
Uh we rejected a lot of Biden administration money, almost a billion dollars.
They didn't know how to take it back.
And so I went up to me with Elon Musk last month.
I said, Elon, I've got almost a billion.
We don't want it.
Biden wouldn't take it.
You want it?
Oh, I take it, so we sent it.
And they we returned almost a billion dollars to the Doge efforts for federal.
We're now doing more.
That's gotta be a world record.
What what other state governor has ever done that?
I've got to run only because of the uh constraints of time, but uh if if this problem continues to evolve and get worse, we'll just name names.
And I I uh you too many people have worked too hard to make Florida the the model state in the country of freedom and liberty and where woke goes to die to change to change course.
Um so please, Governor, keep us in the loop.
Let us know what's going on.
We really appreciate it.
Okay, thanks, buddy.
See ya.
800-941 Sean, if you want to be a part of the program.
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What I told people, I was making a podcast about Benghazi.
Nine times out of ten, they called me a masochist, rolled their eyes, or just asked, why?
Benghazi, the truth became a web of lies.
It's almost a dirty word.
One that connotes conspiracy theory.
Will we ever get the truth about the Benghazi massacre?
Bad faith, political warfare, and frankly, bullshit.
We kill the ambassador just to cover something up.
You put two and two together.
Was it an overblown distraction or a sinister conspiracy?
Benghazi is a Rosetta Stone for everything that's been going on for the last twenty years.
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Here's our toll-free number this Friday.
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Listen, uh, one way to save money, and everybody needs to save money.
Now we're in the process, thank goodness the House reconciliation, the Senate.
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And at least we'll get part of the Biden Harris economy done with begin the process of healing the country, obviously getting ri get rid of waste fraud, abuse, corruption.
Uh anybody with an ounce of common sense knows that's good for the country.
I mean, I can't believe they misuse so many of our dollars.
Doge now up to 150 billion dollars in savings.
It's insane.
Uh the president getting energy up and running.
The threat of tariffs resulted in over seven trillion dollars in committed investment in this country in manufacturing and in the auto industry, uh, Apple, semiconductor chips, and and we've listed that day in and and day out.
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All right, so we're now in the midst of and I I think you really sum this up in a way that this week, President Trump changed everything as it relates to trade worldwide.
The old way of doing things is now officially over.
In other words, ripping off America, abusing America, taking advantage of America.
That's it.
And he was able to reverse what is a 50, 60 year, I don't know, institutionalist uh, you know, mindset that somehow we're gonna allow even allied countries to take advantage of us, and it is now gonna result in we have 75 countries that want trade deals, they want them immediately.
He's calling out China in the biggest way, and China's the worst abuser of them all.
We've gone through the list over and over again of how bad they are and how they've mistreated the American people.
So here's President Trump said we saved U.S. steel.
He also saved the auto industry, the energy sector.
Anyway, here's the president talking about, for example, one industry, the steel industry.
We have steel mills right now that are raging.
The steel industry is gone.
If I didn't put the tariffs on steel, because China was dumping massive amounts of steel in my first term, and I put tariffs on it.
I saved the steel industry, but now it's gonna thrive, maybe like never before.
I mean, if you go back to U.S. Deal from 90 years ago, it's incredible as the number one company in the world for a long time.
That's why we don't want to see it go to Japan.
And we love Japan, but we you know, U.S. Steel is a very special company.
We don't want it to go to Japan or any other place.
So we're working with them, and you know, I don't know if they need any money now.
I I'll be honest with you.
There, they hit gold.
They hit gold because if you look at it, uh they have such orders for steel now, it's incredible.
Joining us to uh discuss this is Selena Zito, who is the national political reporter for the Washington Examiner, and she has been spending a great deal of time going out among the great people in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania.
When you think of Pennsylvania, you think of the steel industry.
When you think of Pennsylvania, you think of fracking.
When you think of Pennsylvania, you think of the the hard working men and women uh of uh that make this country great, they get up every day, work hard, play by the rules, pay their taxes, put in their twelve, fourteen, sixteen hours, they take care of their kids, they go to church on Sunday, and they grind it out and and they make the country great and they provide the things that we need.
Now their lives are about to get that much easier, especially if you're in the steel industry, or if you're in the if you're in the energy sector, and Selena, to her credit, I can't even tell you how many thousands of miles she's put on her car, has been going all around the state, more specifically recently, visiting a steel plant.
She sent me pictures of it and then she put them online on X. It's pretty amazing what's happening, but she's been talking to all of the American workers who now have a president that is championing them, which goes to my other point, which is the Republican Party is now the par the party of working men and women in America.
He's staying standing up for high paying career jobs for Americans.
If you talk about Wall Street versus Main Street, he's sticking with Main Street.
If you talk about the Democratic Party, you know, they're standing up and championing the right of men to play women's sports, the right of illegal immigrants over the safety of Americans.
You know, they scream bloody mer murder.
It's a constitutional crisis if if you cut out waste fraud and abuse.
I mean, there could there's never been a greater distinction between the the two visions, competing visions for the country.
Anyway, Selena's siding with working men and women, the great people of Pennsylvania, who I happen to love a lot and respect a lot.
Anybody that works for a living, I respect.
They make this country great.
Selena, great work.
How are you?
Oh, great.
Thank you.
Thank you so much for having me on, and thank you um for for sort of showcasing this.
You know, Sean, as you were talking, you you I just had a flash point of something I remembered um uh about President Trump.
It was the day it was the uh the day after he was shot in Butler.
And and we by the way, you were you were in the front row that day for maybe people that didn't remember when you came on the show.
Oh, yeah, I was in the buffer.
I was even closer.
I was only four feet away.
Um crazy.
But um he said something to me.
He said a lot of things to me and and then and then the next day.
But one of the things he said to me really makes reminds me of why he does what he does.
And he said, You know, Selena, did you see nobody ran out of there?
Meaning the rally, nobody was there was no panic.
Um these these people were were were poised and they and they handled it in a right in in in a way that was very dignified, right?
It could have gone many other ways.
There could have been a sa stampede.
They're good at there could have been chaos.
And he said, those are my people.
Those are the working class, the people that work with their hands, those are my people, and I will never forget how they behaved that day.
Meaning yesterday, meaning that day.
And um by the way, you know how I know this is true?
It was either an hour or 90 minutes after the incident, I was able to get him on the phone.
I've been tipped off by somebody that was there.
You know, I was you know, furiously typing everybody that I knew that was around them.
Is he okay?
When I got him on the phone, he said, Did you notice nobody ever left?
They all stayed.
That was the first thing he said to me.
He was very consistent, you gotta say that.
Yeah, he was very yes, he is very consistent.
And and in my upcoming book, you guys will hear all kinds of incredible conversations.
But that one, when you're talking about the working class, it just reminded Me, how connected and how much he feels he owes the working class, right?
Um so I was in the uh Urban Works steel mill.
It is the oldest rolling steel mill uh in the country.
It is eighty-six years old, and I have to tell you, Sean and your listeners, it was an honor to be standing there with these men and women, right?
Everything in that room screamed work.
Um the heat, the smell, the sound, watching people doing their jobs, uh just just screamed work.
This is a place where something big, bigger than self happens.
And that's how these people feel about their jobs.
This isn't a career.
This is their artisans.
There's this is a calling.
They make things that make Americans' lives better, whether it's their appliances or and and their cars or the roads that they drive over, their buildings that they go into, whether they're shopping or they're working, right?
But but I want to expand this out because you also went down deep into the ground in a c in a coal mine recently to be with those workers, and then you were with steel workers, and then you were with uh people in the energy sector and the and the fracking business.
You've been all over the state.
I I have.
I I've actually been in a total of sixteen coal mines.
And um it's a it's again uh the very same sentiment, right?
You're powering the country.
It's the same with energy.
You're powering the country, you're making sure the grid is going.
And and these so these are the voters, and these are the people that are very supportive of tariffs.
It is terrorists have eviscerated the manufacturing sector in the industrial Midwest in Appalachia, but also North Carolina, South Carolina, the textiles.
I mean, it has had an undue burden on the working class.
So while you may step on social media and and watch the sort of what I call the very online Democrat and Republican, who are moaning about their 401ks, it's not as if these guys don't have 401ks e2.
They do.
But they look at it very differently.
They say, look, what we're doing, bringing back manufacturing to this country and strengthening it and making things in this country is what is best for the next generations.
It's better for my my children, my grandchildren, and the generations to come, but also my community.
And and so they have a different world view.
They're very willing, and and and this is to a person, they're very, very willing to take uh a hit for it because in the long run it is better for the country in terms of the 401 case.
And the other thing I want to really point out, because people are missing this.
The next big race, the big next big arms race in our country is the race for AI dominance.
And where are they going to put these AI data centers?
And they are energy hungry.
Who's gonna feed that energy?
Well, they're putting them back in places like Homer City, Indiana, where you they just announced last week that they are building a a new um natural gas energy complex that is going to employ ten thousand people with very good paying jobs.
And and they're putting a ten billion dollar investment.
All right, quick break more with Selena Zito.
She's been traveling all over the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania looking at how workers in the steel industry, the energy industry, manufacturing uh facilities, how they're reacting to President Trump and his new trade policies of free and fair trade or reciprocal tariffs, your choice.
Uh hey, if you find yourself tired every day, maybe fighting the 3 p.m. crash, never fun, right?
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Quick break, right back.
We'll continue.
And Governor Ron DeSantis also coming up on this Friday, straight ahead.
The final hour of the Sean Hannity Show is up next.
Hang on for Sean's conservative solutions.
All right, we continue.
Selena Zito is with us.
She's been all over the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, going from industry to industry, hardworking men and women in the steel industry, the energy sector, manufacturing facilities, and she's getting their reaction to President Trump standing up for American workers.
Let me ask you a political question, because I I look at the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania as the salt and and look at Michigan, another example, right?
Similar but different, right?
Different industries.
But they're uh you're talking about blue-collar, hardworking men and women, and that have seen their jobs deteriorate and go overseas left and right.
Uh it was fascinating to see Gretchen Whitmer in the Oval Office, and she's getting hammered because she was praised by by President Trump.
But the question is, what impact do you think all of this good work for working men and women?
Well, what impact do you think it's gonna have on future elections?
Well, the party that the the political party that has the support of the working classes, the party that wins.
People that is that it's that it's it's that I mean, so it's not gonna be the party that's championing the right of of men to play uh women's sports and the rights of illegals over the safety of Americans and uh the party, you know, that constantly votes against American voters.
I mean, that doesn't even want voter ID.
Look, I talked to a variety of voters in uh men and women in that steel plant.
They were black, they were Hispanic, they were white, they were young, they were not so young.
They had been Democrats, they hadn't hadn't had been non-political.
This has been a game changer and has gotten them involved in in politics and has had them vote Republican, not just at the top of the ticket, but all the way to the bottom of the ticket.
You know, the Republicans did not just win the uh presidency in Pennsylvania.
They also won a U.S. Senate seat, nobody thought would um Bob Casey would lose to Dave McCormick.
You're right.
They also won't and the KC name was huge.
Yeah, they also won two US how new new U.S. house seats, and they won all three of the statewide elected row offices.
That's the state has changed, and we've also dramatically changed our party registration in our state.
Oh, dramatically, and we knew that going in.
I talked to you many times about it.
Yeah.
I got to give you a lot of credit, Selena.
I mean, you you go down, you get you know, old shoe leather style reporting, uh, which uh makes you the great success that you are, and we really appreciate you being with us, and thanks for that update.
I I think this is only the beginning.
The Americans will realize that the Democratic Party is now the party of bizarre, weird socialist radicals, elites, and Republicans now standing up for the the great men and women, the the hardworking men and women in the country.
Selena Zito, appreciate it.
Thank you.
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