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June 13, 2025 - Sean Hannity Show
31:51
DOGE Lives On - June 12th, Hour 2
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Sean, if you want to be a part of the program, well, there might be a last-ditch effort here as it relates to Iran.
Certainly, they have been given every opportunity to dismantle their nuclear facilities.
They are the country, the number one state sponsor of terror.
They have repeatedly threatened to wipe Israel off the map.
Death to Israel, death to America.
They have threatened repeatedly to hit the continental United States.
There is scheduled, I'm not sure there's any point in it, nuclear negotiations for Sunday.
Iran is vowing even to rebuild their nuclear sites if Israel takes them out.
Now, the president yesterday wouldn't say an attack by Israel on Iran was imminent, but warned it could happen.
I don't want to say they've been given every chance they have.
They don't need nuclear power.
Now, when you marry, and this is where it gets controversial for some people, but not for me.
Because when you have people that say things like they're going to wipe you off the face of the earth, when you have the number one state sponsor of terror, the people that organized the October 7th attack, and that would include the Quds forces, Iranian Revolutionary Guard, they provided the weaponry to Hamas.
They killed what was the equivalent of 40,000 Americans in a day.
When you extrapolate out Israel's population and compare it to America's population, they have been funding Hezbollah, they have been funding Islamic Jihad.
They have been funding the Houthi rebels.
They have been sowing nothing but insanity in the region and discord in the region.
And they have been killing indiscriminately.
And they are now, according to every source I have and every published reports, they are within a month of being able to have weapons-grade uranium.
They now are at 60 percentile.
To get to 90% is just a couple of weeks, it seems like.
And they are reporting and bragging about their delivery systems, which are getting longer and longer and longer.
And that means the longer you wait, that means the Iranians have that many more options and an ability to maybe even overwhelm in Israel, the Iron Dome.
And now we're talking about a threat to their very survival.
And so where, when, how, I don't know, but it seems to be the tensions are rising.
And clearly, you know, the Iranians are steadfast in their commitment to wipe Israel off the map.
Now, are you really willing to allow Iranian mullahs that are threatening the destruction of our ally, Israel, and threatening the continental United States to get weapons of mass destruction based on their current history?
This is not a question like Iraq.
And by the way, nor do I think that there's going to be anything like a war in Iraq because it's going, as I have said, future generations of weaponry.
You know, we're going to fight wars in air-conditioned buildings by pushing buttons.
And you see a lot of that has been unfolding in the Ukrainian and Russia war that's taken place.
Anyway, joining us now to weigh in on the dangers and the situation as it's unfolding, we welcome back to the program Aaron Cohn, an Israeli trained career special ops and intelligence veteran who has served in the counterterrorism space now for over two decades.
Well, I'm just reading the tea leaves like you are, but it seems to be that the Iranians have now boxed themselves into a corner and they have rejected any and all opportunities to have a peaceful resolution to this crisis.
And the world, I don't think, can risk a modern-day Holocaust because that's what we'd be facing.
Sean, good to be back on with you.
You nailed it.
Iran is painting themselves into a corner, and this is the closest we're getting to a full-scale strike by Israel on Iran.
Israel doesn't have the luxury to not stay ahead of these threats.
And this isn't going to be warning shots, Sean.
This will be a full-spectrum military operation.
We're talking about F-35s, Israel's F-15s flying deep into Iranian airspace, drone decoys, jamming devices to punch through that Russian-made rusty air defense.
Those targets, underground enrichment sites, which you and I have spoken about before on your show, Natans, Fordau, Isfahan, these are hardens, and these are deeply buried facilities.
And Iran's been hiding them or trying to hide them for a long time.
But Israel, nobody's better at getting that intelligence in real time.
And I wouldn't be surprised if Bibi and Trump have been having conversations saying, hey, it's time to get this thing going because here's where this Iran's program is really at.
So that means Mossad is very active.
And, you know, not just analysts here.
I'm talking about sabotage units who have been active in that country for years.
And Israel spent over a decade, Sean, preparing for this.
And they've got, I wouldn't be surprised if they have Iran's entire nuclear archive.
That's how good I know they are.
And they've mapped these targets.
These assets have been embedded for years.
And the chessboard is set.
So here's what changes.
Trump in the White House knows that Iran cannot have a nuclear weapon.
You and I have hit that multiple times.
And I don't think that he's going to tie Israel's hands.
I really don't.
And he understands the threat and what that means to the United States, not just the U.S., but the world.
Iran cannot go nuclear.
So I think conversations are happening with Bibi, his generals and CENTCOM.
And that's why the U.S. embassies are being evacuated.
And I think the entire region needs to brace for a strike.
You know, don't forget the Gulf quietly when those Sunni powers, Saudi Arabia, by the way, wants this too.
They're a friend to the United States, and they're quietly a friend to Israel.
And I wouldn't be surprised if Mohammed bin Salman opens up that airspace.
They may share a little bit of intel.
Nobody can allow Iran to cross that nuclear threshold.
Can we be very honest here?
It's not just Saudi Arabia.
It's all the Gulf states.
They all fear Iran, which is why I think if these sites are ever taken out, my prediction would be that all of those countries and Egypt and Jordan will sign the Abraham Accords and there will be peace in the region.
Everybody fears Iran.
None of these countries want anything to do with them, but they do fear them because they've been so aggressive in their acts of terror against every country imaginable, and they've created more enemies.
And I think a lot of these countries in the middle, they're all sick of them, too.
Sean, nobody wants a war with Iran.
Not the Gulf states, but this is what's necessary.
You're nailing it.
And Iran has pushed too far for too long.
And they're enriching uranium to weapons grade.
They've lied about it.
They've stalled.
They've built underground and armored terror groups across the region, Houthis, Hamas, all these groups.
And now they're going for the bomb.
And the intel from Israel is not going to lie.
So what's coming could be a potential full-spectrum Israeli operation.
And I think that everybody is going to owe it.
All right, but let's game that out.
Let's say now the Israelis, my understanding has always been from my sources is that they need the United States.
They need bunker buster bombs and that that would be very critical for them.
Otherwise, my understanding has always been that Israel, you know, tactically would have to use a nuke to do it themselves.
Do you believe that they could do it without a tactical nuke?
I believe that they can.
I believe that Israel has got the strategy, between the bunker busters, the intelligence assets on the ground, all of the information that they've been building over the last decade, including the cyber and the signal and the ability to infiltrate the tech, to jam, and to dump in a ton of viruses.
I think that first wave will be selective.
But if Israel needs to escalate, Sean, it will.
But I believe it's going to be layered.
I think it's going to be one big monster, multi-layered, and then tactical nuclear.
Can't speak to that publicly, but I wouldn't be surprised if Israel's got that as a backup option.
However, I think it'll be a little more selective, and I think it'll be signaling messaging.
And let's cut off Iran's ability for any of those sites to be able to continue their program.
That's where I'm at with that.
Okay, but does Israel have the bunker buster capability?
I think that Israel does.
I think Israel got a big arms shipment that came as soon as Trump got into office.
And I think that they can reach pretty deep to slow down the Iranians for this first part.
How deep the capabilities go, I can't speak to that because I'm not clear.
Well, they already showed back in April a year ago that they can penetrate their air defense systems easily and go deep into Iranian territory.
Now, let me ask you this question.
Let's say the Israelis launch this operation.
You've got to game it out and figure out, well, what is the response going to be?
I would imagine that the Iranians will probably begin an onslaught, maybe with the help of Hamas and Hezbollah and the Houthis, of missiles being fired at Israel too, and maybe more than Israel has ever had to withstand in the past.
Israel's got to be prepared for that.
Hopefully they know where their missile batteries are and they can take those things out too.
It's a good question, Sean.
And if Israel hits Iran, the retaliation is guaranteed.
And I agree with you.
It's going to be the proxies, Hezbollah, whatever assets are left.
I think we're going to see some rockets coming from that region, not necessarily Lebanon because of the dent that Israel has put in there.
But I think whatever's left with the Houthis, I think that's going to start getting lit up.
I think, Sean, that the cyber from Israel will start getting really, really hot.
I think that, first of all, Sean, Israel's comfortable in this multi-front here.
And I think that Northern commands with pre-cleared strike packages, which is what we call it, is going to go after the remainder of the Hezbollah rocket stockpiles and all of the intel that Israel has on the Houthis.
I think it's going to give Israel the ability to be able to smash Gaza with a final barrage.
And then there's also, I just, Israel's real edge, Sean, is that they're built to absorb that first wave and then adapt and dismantle whatever launch platforms they're coming from.
But it's going to get ugly, Sean.
And it's not going to be one-sided.
And Iran wants that war to stretch out.
So Israel's going to preempt Houthis, anything coming out of Gaza, anything coming out of Syria or Iraq, and any remaindered launch sites that are in Lebanon.
So it's going to just be a monster blitz to get ahead of all of that with offense being the key defense here.
And so, again, this is in waves.
This is in layers.
That's where Israel's strength is.
All right, quick break.
Welcome back more with Aaron Cohn, an Israeli-trained career special ops and intelligence veteran who served in the counterterrorism space for over two decades.
Then we'll check in with Newt Gingrich on the other side of the bottom of the hour break as we continue.
All right, we continue now.
Aaron Cohn is with us, an Israeli-trained career special ops intelligence veteran who has served in the counterterrorism space now for over two decades.
What do you say to those people that say, well, this is not our fight?
I think that is beyond naive to not understand the threat, the existential threat that Iran brings to not only Israel, the entire Middle East and the entire world, coupled with their converter die sick ideology and their history of being the number one state sponsor of terrorism.
Because they've declared war on the world, basically.
Sean, here's what I say to anyone who says this isn't our fight.
I say that's naive.
Get your head out of your tufus.
Iran's been in our fight for decades here in the United States.
It killed American soldiers in Iraq.
They funded terror cells from Argentina to New York.
They're behind Hezbollah.
They're behind Hamas and the Houthis.
And all of whom chant death to America.
Anyone can pull that footage as loud as they chant death to Israel.
So you let Iran go nuclear and it doesn't just threaten Tel Aviv and it destabilizes the entire world talking about oil routes choke.
Proxy wars continue to explode.
Not to mention, who knows how many assassins are running around in the United States, Sean?
You've always spoken to that.
Nobody else has.
You've been let into this country.
So the terror attacks end up going global.
And guess who's behind it all?
It's Iran.
It's always been Iran, and it's the U.S. that's going to be this major target.
If Israel takes out Iran's nukes, they're not just protecting Israel.
They're buying the Americans time, and they're doing the job that NOAA has the spine to do.
So yeah, it's our fight also here in the States.
Because if the first missile flies in the Middle East, the next one's going to go to Miami.
So you don't wait for fire to reach the porch.
You know, Americans need to understand that.
You have to help your forward operating base and ally, which is Israel, put out that fire before it spreads.
It's a cancer, and it's spreading.
And I've been saying in the days leading up to where we are today that it's like a minute to midnight, and they just keep refusing to join the civilized world.
And it is a risk that the world can't have.
It just is.
Aaron Cohn, prayers with everybody involved in this.
Hopefully they'll have a change of heart.
So far, they have shown no indication that they will.
All right.
Yeah.
Hope you'll join us.
Don't forget, go to Hannity.com.
We are excited.
Jimmy Philip gives me a joke a day.
He said, all right, I might have crossed the line yesterday.
Maybe I'll take that one out as you suggest.
Anyway, we're going to be in Clearwater on June the 28th, Saturday night, 7 p.m.
And it is Tampa.
It is Sarasota, Fort Myers, the Panhandle, Orlando.
Come see us.
Ruth Eckert Hall.
Tickets on Hannity.com.
The next night, Sunday night, June 29th, Fort Lauderdale.
That's Miami.
That is Del Ray Beach.
That is Boca.
That is Palm Beach, West Palm Beach, Vanalapan.
Anyway, 7 o'clock, Sunday, the 29th, Broward Center for Performing Arts.
Again, tickets available on Hannity.com.
And by the way, we're not the politically correct left-wing comics, and we're going to celebrate patriotism also heading into the 4th of July.
But there's no holds barred here.
This is going to be an R-rated show.
I'm telling you all ahead of time.
I'm giving you fair warning.
Anyway, I hope you can join us.
Hey, reminder.
What is my favorite pasta sauce, Linda?
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And they just gave me a bunch of them, and I can tell you from first-hand tasting, they are fantastic.
It's not sauce, it's sauce.
But, you know, why?
Why don't you ask the speaker?
I think he would agree with me.
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Anyway, joining us now, we do have a lot of news.
It keeps breaking.
I know we're following the madness, and we expect a lot of it this weekend.
They're planning multiple, about 30 some odd, 35 was the last I counted, 35 separate instances of this insane protesting that's been going on around the country.
You know, God forbid, ICE actually enforces the laws of our land.
God forbid they remove murderers and child molesters and gang members and other violent criminals.
You know, there's a reason for the left to melt down and fight back and blame Donald Trump as if it was Donald Trump who left the borders wide open.
We have known terrorists in the country, gang members in the country.
We have cartel members in the country, and we have known murderers and rapists.
I keep scrolling all the names and victims of people in California.
And we had this beatdown, which I played earlier in the program of Elise Defonic.
I mean, she just destroyed New York Governor Kathy Hochul, who just came off looking like a total, complete idiot in that exchange.
We continue our discussion.
Headlines now all over the place.
Israel considering striking Iran.
It could be any day.
The U.S. Embassy in Jerusalem has been bracing for this.
Tehran has stepped up.
New enrichment we're discovering.
U.S. is preparing for the evacuations apparently ongoing.
The U.K. has issued a rare warning about such.
Central Command Chief has postponed the Senate testimony.
The IDF is on high alert.
Tehran is testing or having a test of missiles with two-ton warheads.
And it looks like the Iranians, as we've been reporting regularly, have completely and utterly rejected every offer of peace in the region that Donald Trump has put out there.
And now the world is given a choice.
Either we allow the number one state sponsor of terror that has promised to wipe Israel and the U.S. off the map, or we roll the dice and risk a modern-day Holocaust.
So what's the answer?
Anyway, we welcome back to the program.
Former Speaker of the House, Newt Gingrich, he has his new best-selling book that has just come out.
And by the way, it is one of his best books.
I got to tell you, I've read a cover to cover, Trump's Triumph, America's Greatest Comeback.
Mr. Speaker, it looks very real to me as an outsider.
Your thoughts?
Yeah, well, I want to say this for a second.
We're very proud because Trump's triumph is now number four on the New York Times list.
can you imagine a book that has Trump in the title and Gingrich as the author and the Times still had to put on the list made me feel pretty good by the way they do everything they can do to not put conservative books on that list just for the record And I know firsthand, and I've made it to number one a number of times, but I'm just telling you, you have to outperform by tenfold.
Yep, no, so we felt very good last night when we learned that.
But look, I think Israel has been, and Netanyahu has been very clear with the president that Israel is not going to take the risk of a nuclear-armed Iran with a dictatorship which says that death to Israel and death to America are policies.
And I think they've made very clear that if he can get to a negotiated deal, fine.
But in the end, there'll come a line.
And if they conclude that the Iranians are not going to agree, they're going to hit him.
And I would not be at all surprised in the next 72 hours to see an all-out Israeli assault.
They proved a couple months ago that they could penetrate the air defense space.
They sent aircraft up there, did not lose a single plane, and took apart the Russian-provided anti-aircraft systems.
And I think they're very confident that they probably can't do the level of damage that we can do because they don't have the kind of strategic bombers we have.
But they can do a lot of damage.
They can put the program back by probably 10 years or more.
And I think that it's very, very likely they're going to do that.
And that's going to pose a real crisis.
I personally believe that until we replace the regime, that it's going to be a permanent danger to all of us.
They're the biggest sponsor of terrorism.
They aggressively and openly say they want to destroy the United States and they want to destroy Israel.
And I think you ought to take them at face value.
They mean what they say.
What do you say?
I mean, there are some people that support Donald Trump.
Oh, we don't need to get in any war or involve ourselves in any way.
And I'm puzzled by it.
And they might refer to, for example, the bad intelligence that we had in terms of weapons of mass destruction in Iraq.
And that's a fair argument.
The only problem with this one here is they're stating it.
They're stating it very publicly.
The IAEA has confirmed that they've not been abiding by the nuclear proliferation treaty that they agreed to.
That just came out in the last 24 hours.
And they are now, according to every source I have, at 60% enrichment.
That means they're only weeks away from 90%, which is nuclear-grade enrichment, which means they'll have the bomb, which means that with the delivery system, they are in nuclear power.
Once they get there, we can't go backwards.
So the question is, it seems like it's one minute to midnight, and either we decide to protect the world at this point, or we risk a modern-day Holocaust.
That's the choice to me.
I'm not willing to risk a modern-day Holocaust.
I would prefer that they would have just gone along with the peace deal.
And my understanding is the United States even said they'll lift sanctions if they give up their nuclear ambition.
No, I think that's right.
I don't think we, you know, an Iran which agreed not to ever go nuclear would be a very distant threat to us.
But an Iran which wants nuclear weapons is an immediate threat.
You know, President Franklin Delano Roosevelt in 1941, in trying to explain the Nazi danger, said, if you see a rattlesnake, you don't have to wait for him to strike before you decide to do something.
And you certainly don't have to wait for him to strike five, six, or seven times.
Well, the Iranians have proven over and over again that they want to destroy Israel, that they want to kill Americans.
And their operatives have probably killed more Americans, remembering also that the fact is that these are people who have been methodically trying to defeat the United States all across the region.
Now, I do think if they get bombed, there are likely to be some consequences, and they're likely to try to lash out.
But if I were the Israelis, I would feel like I had no choice.
That you could never be the prime minister who allowed the Iranians to get nuclear weapons.
I mean, it just you know.
I would take it a step further.
I don't think you could be the president.
Now, I would argue, and maybe you would disagree with this, the only reason that they've been able to foment terror is because Joe Biden allowed them, turned a blind eye to the sanctions that were bankrupting that country.
And as a result of him turning a blind eye, they have taken in tens and hundreds of billions of dollars.
He even gave specific waivers for, you know, billions and billions of dollars in oil money for them.
And they have used that money to fund Hezbollah and Hamas and Islamic Jihad and the Houthi rebels and foment terror in the entire region.
So, you know, they are already at war with the Western world.
And now it's a matter of what role should the U.S. play in this.
I think we've got to defend our ally Israel and prevent them from ever getting a nuclear weapon.
And I'm not saying that we don't risk a cost here.
I don't think this is a risk-free mission.
There's no such thing as a risk-free military mission.
Well, remember, as early as 1983, it was an Iranian operative who killed 200 and some Marines in Lebanon.
So their war against the United States has deep roots, is very real, and has cost a lot of lives.
And they killed Americans at Khobar Tower in 19, I think, 95.
This is a regime which has been doing everything it can to undermine and drive the United States out of the region.
It is a regime which has unrelenting hostility and desire to destroy Israel.
And when Trump was president the first time, by killing Soleimani, the general who was in charge of the Iranian Republican Guard, and then by really hitting them very hard with very steep sanctions, he basically got the regime to go sort of into hibernation.
They did not do very much after the death of Soleimani, and I think that they began to run out of money.
The Biden administration was insane on this as on so many other things and basically revived an enemy who we had begun to defeat and allowed that enemy to rebuild their capabilities and to rebuild their economy.
And now we've got to do something about it.
And it's later.
I mean, they had four extra years to try to prepare.
And I think from Netanyahu's standpoint, they literally have no time to waste.
And they've been patient, and they've been waiting for us to get the job done.
And I think there are some circumstances where President Trump might feel compelled to use American combat power to reinforce the Israelis.
So we'll see how the next three or four days work out.
But my personal guess is that it will start with an all-out Israeli assault aimed at taking out the nuclear capability and doing it in a way that is very, very decisive.
Quick break, we'll come right back more with former Speaker of the House, Newt Gingrich.
By the way, congratulations to the Speaker.
His new book just out, a huge New York Times bestseller, Trump's Triumph, America's Greatest Comeback, Hannity.com, Amazon.com, bookstores around the country.
We'll come back.
We'll continue more with Newt on the other side.
Straight ahead.
All right, we continue with former Speaker of the House Newt Kingrich.
By the way, congratulations.
His book, Trump's Triumph, America's Greatest Comeback, now officially a top New York Times bestseller, Amazon.com, Hannity.com, bookstores everywhere.
You know, I've gotten mixed messages from different people and different sources about whether or not it's not that Israel doesn't have the capability.
They have tactical nukes, so that would certainly be an option if they needed to go it alone, but whether or not they have the bunker buster bombs, because these things are built so deep into the ground and there's been some fortification of these sites that they seem to be, that would be the more, that would be the ideal choice is to take out those facilities that way.
Let's assume we do all of this or they're involved or maybe there's some involvement of the U.S. Israel has got to expect that they're going to come back with a fierce response.
And I imagine that they've gamed that out and they've got to be ready for that too.
I'm not sure how much of a fierce response they can do.
I mean, they can fire all of their weapons.
They've got thousands of missiles.
They've shown a willingness to fire ballistic missiles at Israel, but the Iron Dome was able to protect them.
The last time they did it, the fact is I think 92% or 94% were shot down.
And I think the level of chaos, an all-out Israeli attack would also include taking out a lot of their missiles.
And again, I think it's a calculated risk.
You're sitting there and you're thinking, all right, do I want to wait until they can put nuclear weapons on those missiles?
Or do I want to hit them now and put their, probably put their program back by at least 10 years?
Well, I think that's a reasonable start.
And frankly, my hunch is that the Israelis have solved the bunker buster bomb problem.
They don't have high-speed aircraft that could carry a bunker buster, but they could use C-130s if they wanted to.
Once they cleared the airspace so that there's no anti-air defense, you could come in with bunker busters in basically a tactical transport plane and just put, you just shove them out the back.
But you also, frankly, get the equivalent of a bunker buster bomb if you hit it five, six, seven, eight times.
But this is not going to be a ground war.
This is not going to be Iraq.
This is going to be missiles fired in every direction.
And I think that's the next generation of warfare that I've been saying, that they'll be fought in air-conditioned offices.
We don't want to try to conquer Iran, but we do want to blow up their nuclear capability.
Yeah.
Well, I couldn't be happier and more proud of you.
Now a huge New York Times best-selling book, which, I mean, had to literally give Ajada to everybody at the New York Times.
Congratulations, Trump's Triumph, America's Greatest Comeback.
It's on Amazon.com, Hannity.com, bookstores around the country.
Former Speaker of the House New Gingrich, we're going to be watching these next 72 hours.
Obviously, this is in play.
We appreciate your time, sir.
Talk to you soon.
800-941-Sean, if you want to be a part of the program.
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