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July 9, 2025 - Sean Hannity Show
31:51
Fight for America's Heartland - July 8th, Hour 2
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This is an iHeart Podcast.
Hey, it's Mark Simone here for uh Sean Hannity.
Uh normally I'm on our big uh flagship station in New York City.
710 W O R. You can hear me on iHeart or get the podcast.
Well uh Selena Zito, a great journalist.
We've had her on before.
She's the uh national political reporter for the Washington Examiner.
And we've had her on before to talk about this book that she's got.
Well, it just came out today.
It's out today.
It is the most riveting book.
You gotta get the book.
She was standing with President Trump when he was shot.
Uh the assassination attempt.
She was standing right there.
It is the most incredible book about what happened that day.
It's called Butler.
Get the book, Butler, the untold story of the near assassination of Donald Trump and the fight for America's Heartland.
Order the book now.
And she's with us right now.
Selena Zito, how are you doing?
Hey, Mark, thank you so much for having me on.
I'm doing great.
And I hate to put you through this again.
I know you better tell this so many times, but just explain to the audience.
You were standing right there when it happened.
Yeah, I was.
I was about four feet away.
Um and you know, when you're a journalist, when you start your day and you have a plan, you pretty much know the plan's gonna fall apart, right?
Something's going to go wrong.
Never in my wildest imagination did I think um what what was gonna happen that day happened.
I was supposed to interview the president five minutes before, then that changed to five minutes after, and then that changed to you're gonna fly to Bedminster and interview him on the plane.
And then just before he went on stage, he asked to see me, and I w I didn't know that.
I thought it was changed back to him interviewing before the rally, but he just wanted to say hello.
So that is how I ended up in that buffer.
That that is not where I was supposed to be that day.
But I ended up in the buffer because they couldn't get me back to the riser in enough time and then get back to go in the motorcade.
I'm with my daughter, she's a photojournalist.
You can see her photo is the cover of the book, and and it's a powerful image, and you'll understand why in a minute.
Because um th they put me in the buffer and they said, Okay, work your way over to the other side and then we'll grab you, meaning the Secret Service, to to go on the motorcade.
So we we I'm I if people followed me that day on Twitter, they can see the the images I was taking, the video, you know, all the way leading up, he comes out, um, and he does two things within minutes of standing out there that he never ever does.
And that is he puts a chart down, and I remember saying to my daughter, my goodness, what is he, Ross Perot?
What's he doing?
Uh and then he turns his head.
LF ever either gone to a Trump rally or watched one, he never turns his head away from the audience.
A very transactional emotional relationship between him and them.
He may turn his body to face a different direction, but he never turned his head away.
The chart goes down, he turns his head away, and I hear four shots just go right over my head.
I'm a gun owner.
I knew exactly what it was the minute that it happened.
I w and and at this point I'm about four or five feet away.
I watch him grab his ear, I see the blood streak across his face, and I see him take himself down.
Now, when you're in a tr in in a in a in a in a situation like that, they often say time slows down, and and that was certainly true for me in that moment, because I'm watching him take himself down, and I'm I'm calculating, okay, he he must be at least a little bit okay because he he wasn't taken off of his feet, right?
And and then I see a sea of blue surround him as the next four shots go off.
Now I don't get down.
I don't know what happened in my head.
Um I remember being very worried about him.
I remember being very worried that anybody in the place had been shot, but I wasn't thinking about myself.
I was thinking, you know, I okay, you have a purpose, Selena.
You are a reporter.
You better get your act together and cover this and remember this because this is history.
And that's where my brain went.
Uh it wasn't until a couple mid seconds later that the uh campaign press aide, Michelle Picard actually takes me down because he was worried about me and and covers my body to protect me until that we get the all clear.
Now in uh the he has the podium where he speaks and in front was uh bunting, a big bunting, but behind that was armor plating.
That's why you get down behind that.
And uh I I just assumed the Secret Service when he was down there got on top of him and covered him up.
Is that the case?
That's his case.
They completely surrounded him.
There was a c a complete protective screen and protective stance around him.
From my angle, I can see his face.
Because I'm just uh I just happened, I mean, you know, he and I talked about the hand of God a lot the next day, and and so you know, I wonder, well, is this my purpose?
Is this what I'm supposed to do?
Am I supposed to be able to to chronicle this?
And uh and the answer ended up being yes.
And I can see his face.
I can see him arguing with uh with the Secret Service to put his shoes on, he wants his shoes on.
And and uh and my recorder's going.
I always have my recorder on at a rally, even though there's always a transcript afterwards.
I always think it's important to get the inflection and the uh emotion and nuance when when when covering someone, because that's different than just flatly saying it.
And and um the crowd starts chanting USA and I can see him say along with them.
He's not shouting it, but I see him mouthing USA.
And then he gets up and they want to take him off the stage and he turns, and that's when he there's that iconic moment when he says, Fight, fight, fight.
Yeah, we have a We all saw him do that.
Did he actually say it out loud?
Fight by fight?
Yeah.
Yeah, yeah.
Yeah.
Um, I don't I don't I think the mic was off at that moment.
I don't know if the larger group of people can hear him say it.
I can hear him say it, but then again, I'm very, very close to him.
Yeah.
Um and he calls me the next morning.
Yeah, this is the most amazing part.
What's the first thing he said when he called you?
He said he said, Good morning, Selena.
This is uh President Donald Trump, like I don't know who it is, right?
And he says, I want to make sure you're okay and your daughter's okay.
Wow.
Um and I'm really sorry we didn't get to um do that um interview.
Um and and then I did something that's gonna make my parents squirm when they read it.
I swore, like a truck driver, and I said, Are you believing me?
Kidding me, sir, you were just shot.
Um I'm okay, are you okay?
The president will go go on to call me seven more times that day.
Well, now this is just the beginning of this book.
You gotta get the book.
It's called Butler.
It's the whole story.
Selena Zito uh his book is out.
The book is out today.
Right now you can order it, you'll get it right away.
The book's called Butler by Selena Zito.
Order it and get it.
Uh hey, when uh you look at the the sh Reagan uh shooting, they had him in the car and speeding away within two seconds.
Uh why was President Trump there for minutes and minutes and minutes before they got him out of there?
First I wanted to make sure the shooter was down.
Yeah.
Okay.
And and they were oh, they all had their bodies on top of him.
There are there if there are shots fired, they were taking it.
And um, so and then they had to get him um to get him get his shoes on because he wanted his shoes on.
In his defense, though, he didn't know where he was gonna go or what he'd be walking on, and also those shoes are 2400 a pair.
It's more, you know.
They're very nice shoes.
Yeah, and and I think, you know, this is one of many conversations that I have with him.
He talked about God and talked about purpose several times with me.
But I asked him in that moment that next day, why did you say fight, fight fight and this goes back to why he wanted his shoes on he said you know Selena in that moment I wasn't Donald Trump I was a president of the United States and it is my duty and obligation to show strength and resilience and resolve and and and be and be a symbol of our exceptionalism because as a president you
have to show strength because you have people there that would panic if I didn't you have people watching it that could possibly panic it is my obligation to show that and I suspect that had that had a lot to do with not walking off in his stalking feet over gravel.
Yeah.
Wow.
Hey, we came to know everything about Lee Harvey Oswald and every detail of John Hinckley.
Why do we not hear anything?
Why don't we learn?
We've learned nothing about the shooter.
Yeah.
You know, this is part of what I mean.
The book obviously talks about Butler, but it also talks about the big impact that I saw in Pennsylvania.
And no one can argue that Pennsylvania is not the most important state in the country in terms of understanding what's happening and understanding how things change and move.
What is fascinating to me, now I did my best.
There are things in there you will learn about him.
But the problem with this young man is he didn't leave a digital imprint.
He did not.
He wasn't, unlike most young people, he was not prolific on social media whatsoever.
And he was a loner.
He was an isolationist.
He didn't have any close friends.
There was no wife that could talk about him.
There were no friends that could talk about him.
Trust me.
I looked under every block to find that answer.
And you look at the log at the sportsman club where he was.
Well, you know, he went there on days like Thanksgiving and Christmas and Valentine's Day on Sundays, days that you would traditionally spend with family and friends and loved ones.
So this was a person that were very much collapsing inwardly.
And you hear the 911 call, the 911 call from his dad in the book.
And his dad knew something, something very bad had happened.
And, you know, I take people through the community of where he was from.
It's a really riveting moment.
in the book.
Do we think there was any connection between the shooter and any um thing Iran anybody any connection somebody behind it?
To date there has been no evidence of that that doesn't mean it exit doesn't exist but finding that evidence and I know the FBI is on that right now I I that evidence has not been uncovered.
No evidence has been uncovered.
If it has been uncovered, we don't know that yet.
You think it clinched the election for him, that way he handled himself, the fight, fight, fight, the fist, for a lot of independents who weren't sure, that they were so impressed and awed by his strength and toughness that that may have gotten their votes?
Oh, yeah.
And you will see that journey in this book.
all throughout all 67 counties of Pennsylvania.
And also you see the complete failure of the Harris campaign.
You know, I'm writing this book as I'm covering the election.
And you see and read and hear things that you had no idea what was happening by the way that my profession covered it.
And the last chapter in the book is about the reckoning with my profession.
And what is happening with it.
How it failed so miserably.
Not just in the coverage of an assassination, near assassination of a president.
But how they swept it under the rug.
How I was literally laying on the ground.
And there's alerts coming up on my phone saying shrapnel hit him.
From the teleprompter that it was glass.
Wow.
And I'm thinking, my God, I'm here.
I'm right here in that rushed.
to be first in that rush to be the story the way you want it to be rather than what the facts present themselves infuriate me infuriated me in that moment but also in the nuance of that entire election cycle it just absolutely blew my mind the two different worlds I straddled from what I reported to what I would go on social media or go on legacy news and see or read.
Wow well it's a riveting book you've got to get the book go order it just came out if you order it right now you'll get it right away the book is called Butler as in Butler Pennsylvania the books called Butler the Untold Story of the Near Assassination of Donald Trump The Fight for America's Heartland Butler by Selena Zito go order the book and uh Selena Zito thanks for being with us we'll do it again soon.
Thank you so much what a great interview thank you.
All right take care.
Wow what a book anyway we'll take some calls in a minute 1800 941 Sean is the number Mark Simone here for Sean Hannity.
The monkeys oh my God well it's Mark Simone here for uh Sean Hannity.
Linda did you pick that music?
You don't even remember the monkeys I love the monkeys you do?
Okay.
Then I saw her face now I'm a believer?
All right no that's better the music was actually pretty good.
You know who's a big monkeys fan Paul McCartney.
Paul McCartney, you know the Beatles are I don't want to make anybody mad.
I'm not the biggest Beatles fan.
So you know but Paul McCartney's an interesting the monkeys do it for you not the Beatles.
They monkeys do do it for me.
So for you it was waiting up to see the monkeys on the Ed Sullivan show, not the Beatles.
Listen the Ed Sullivan show is a time it was a time in our country when there was real talent and people actually played instruments and used their voice as opposed to now where everything's AI and computers.
Yeah the Ed Sullivan show was fascinating was the most talented people in the world except the host it was just a big stiff who stood there.
It was so funny though like I kind of liked him.
I thought it was fun.
Well well we'll get to Mom Donnie the crazy communist running for mayor.
We'll get to him after the break this is what's right with America you're listening to the Sean Hannity show.
Hey it's Mark Simone here for Sean Hannity normally I'm on our big uh flagship station here in New York W O R 710 or you can hear me on iHeart the podcast is there or any place you get podcast but iHeart's the best place.
Linda you have a podcast on iHeart I do.
It's called the Rogue Recap where I say things a little bit more you know rogue.
Like what do you mean?
You know not uh I wouldn't say it's a family friendly show sometimes.
As opposed to the delicate version of you we get here you mean it's you get worse than this a lot worse unfortunately because the news dictates what I discuss.
Oh and I happen to get upset about it.
I don't I'm not so good at hiding my feelings.
I'm a little too direct I think.
Yeah that's okay.
It's called the rogue The Rogue Recap with Linda.
The rogue recap with Linda on iHeart or the Mark Simone podcast or of course the uh Sean Hannity.
Well you're already incredible.
I mean your show's the number one morning show in New York it's amazing.
Not the world just New York.
I mean I don't know if it's the world I live here.
What can I tell you?
All right you know how Sean always picks on New York and what the hell are you still doing there and all that I don't know why he keeps saying button.
But we have a communist running for mayor.
He won the Democratic primary.
I don't mean a left-wing, a slanted left-wing.
I don't mean a woke.
I mean a socialist, communist, lunatic running for mayor.
The problem is in New York, so many registered Democrats that usually, if you have the Democratic nomination, that means you win.
I know you could say, well, yeah, but Rudy Giuliani won a couple times.
Bloomberg won as a Republican.
But that's 30 years ago, 20 years ago.
There were far more Republicans registered back then, a number of Republicans way down.
So it's tough to defeat a Democrat.
Such an incredible advantage in terms of registered voters.
But this is different.
This is a lunatic communist.
And you Democrats, I don't know if you've thought about this, but you've nominated a guy who's 12 years old.
He just became a citizen like four weeks ago.
He just became a citizen recently.
He's never had a job.
He's never worked.
He has no resume.
If you came to a company for a job, they'd say, I see here you've never worked anywhere.
I see here you've never had any occupation of any kind.
I mean, he's only 33.
He became a citizen a couple of years ago, just very recently.
Now, think about this.
His father is a big professor at Columbia.
His mother is a very big international filmmaker, very wealthy family.
The father, big Columbia professor.
So he applies to Columbia University, and he lies on the application.
He checks off African American, which, of course, is a lie.
Now, he's going to argue, well, I was born in Uganda, which is in Africa.
But he's not.
First of all, he's not even Ugandan.
He's Indian.
He's not Ugandan, and you can't, I mean, for that matter, Elon Musk could check off African American.
He's from South Africa.
But it's obviously a lie.
And then he checked off Asian.
You could argue, well, he's Indian.
That's Asian.
But obviously, obviously, he was trying to deceive Columbia.
And he said, well, there was no specific box for what I guarantee on the application, you know, they always have those boxes.
And then you can check other.
I guarantee you there was another box he didn't check.
So he lies about being African American.
Very offensive, the whole thing.
think about this his father's a big professor at Columbia and he still didn't get in so there's more to this story your father's on the faculty and whatever you can still don't get in the so expect more to come out about this guy.
One by one things will start coming out about him the only reason he got the nomination the opposition was Andrew Cuomo, the former governor but if you've seen him lately he's a tired old broken down guy.
He's like the old fighter who can't get his hands up can't defend himself and in the debate this momdami or as Al Sharpman calls him ma'am dammy this ma'am dammy in the debate wiped the floor with Cuomo just beat him to a pulp.
Cuomo couldn't defend himself it was amazing and that's how he got the nomination and by the way who ran a terrible campaign with the worst people running it and it was just a disaster he didn't appear anywhere he didn't go anywhere he didn't do interviews he didn't do anything.
Also, he forgot to do any opposition research on the guy.
So the stuff is coming out slowly now, but it should have come out in the primary.
There's all sorts of stuff here.
He went to visit a mosque not long ago where the imam called for the total annihilation of Israel.
I mean, stuff like that.
I mean, all his old tweets.
There's one where there's a beautiful statue of Columbus here in Columbus Circle, Christopher Columbus.
And he's giving the finger to the statue.
And the other thing, and this is where Cuomo stunk.
He couldn't get any of this across.
This guy is running by proposing all these, you know, socialist communists.
We'll have free buses.
We'll have free this.
First of all, the mayor has no authority to make the buses free.
The buses are part of what they call the MTA.
That's the state transportation.
It's the governor.
She controls all of that.
He has no authority to make the buses free.
Then he said, I'll tax the rich.
I'll tax the white neighborhoods.
He actually said that.
I'll tax the one.
As mayor, you have no authority to tax anybody.
He can't impose taxes.
And then he talked about government-run supermarkets.
By the way, when he started that, he lost a lot of immigrants, especially from Russia or Cuba, because they grew up seeing what government-run supermarkets look like.
It's empty shelves.
And when they, you know, cereal in America is, is three aisles of every kind of cereal in the world government supermarket it's just plain white boxes that say cereal on them literally that's what you'll see in a Cuban uh supermarket and uh first of all they've tried this, you know, every really left wing crazy university, like in California, Vermont, uh, they do what they they call it a cooperative, like it's a school store where you can buy groceries and things.
It's the worst.
It never works.
Nobody's ever been able to make it work.
Now, he's not gonna be mayor because a couple of things could happen.
Linda doesn't agree with this.
Uh but uh Eric Adams will become uh the big opponent.
He's the current mayor.
Now you have this is how bad Andrew Cuomo is.
He's still hanging in there.
He's gonna have to go and he will go.
But he said uh Eric Adams is unelectable.
Uh Adams points out Wait a minute, I'm the sitting mayor.
I am I was elected.
I am I'm uh how could you say he can't get elected mayor?
He is mayor, he got elected mayor, so uh and then here's what'll happen.
Donald Trump is really fired up about this Mom Dami.
He is gonna wipe this guy out.
He is gonna stop him.
He hasn't figured out how, but you know what he does when he starts branding somebody, low energy Jeb, sleepy Joe, he'll start the branding and then he'll start he I know he's uh without revealing too much.
I know he's meeting with a lot of people in New York and talking on the phone, figuring out how to stop this guy.
Leave it to Trump, he'll figure out how to stop this guy.
He was asked about Mom Dami.
This is a uh man who's not very capable in my opinion, other than he's got a good line of bull and he's convinced them to go with him.
Now, uh as you know, Cuomo, who does have capability is running, but he got knocked out, and now they're running as uh you have Eric Adams, the current mayor, you have Cuomo, and you have uh Curtis Lewa.
And Curtis runs every every four years.
He seems to be a fixture on the running scale.
But but you know, it's uh I'm not getting involved.
But I can tell you this.
Uh I used to say we will not ever be a socialist country, right?
Well, I'll say it again.
We're not gonna have if if a communist gets elected to run New York, uh it can never be the same, but we have tremendous power at the White House to run places when we have to.
Yeah, now he said, I'm not getting involved.
I can tell you for a fact he's already involved.
He's talking to people, meetings are gonna be taking place, he'll figure out how to stop this guy.
Now, if you think about it, uh he wants to turn a socialist this guy, his family fled Uganda to come here and make a fortune, and uh so now this guy wants to turn us into Uganda, uh a messed up socialist sort of a place.
So the whole thing is insane.
Uh Trump has even uh he said it somewhere today that if this guy wins and goes crazy that uh he thinks the federal government can take control in New York.
Take federal control of New York.
Now I don't know if you can really do that.
You'd have to be in court a million times, but I'm just telling you, he will figure out how to stop this guy.
Now here's the way they can stop him, and Adams has already talked about this.
Uh that imbalance, so many registered Democrats, not as many Republicans.
They'd have to go out and register one million people.
Republicans who haven't been voting, they'll have to go out and register him.
It can be done.
Adams, I don't think can pull that off, but Trump can.
Uh and the billionaires all put in the money for that effort, that campaign.
Linda's looking at me like she agreeing.
I I do agree with you.
I'm just curious to your point why we're not talking about his mother who made a gajillion dollars working in Hollywood, his father, who is an elitist professor.
And then in addition, he's been asked several times about whether or not he supports the global intifada, how he feels about Sharia law.
He is unable to answer either one of those questions directly with disdain and saying, I do not.
Well, I was trying to list his bad points.
It's only a three-hour show.
I can't list them all.
I forgot.
He really he really is a very there's two problems here.
My mother always told me this, and I agree with her.
We are doomed to repeat history if we are not students of it.
And I would say ninety-eight percent of these lunatics that are following him could not tell you what a socialist is, could not tell you a communist is, have no idea what Marxism means, do not know their history about Russia, about Cuba, about you know, other, you know, Eastern European nations like Georgia, like the Czech Republic, what they've gone through.
They just don't know.
And nor do they care.
No, they don't care.
Because you can point out to them.
Now, it it two things have caused this.
One, uh, you're right, it's all young people.
That's how he won the primary.
A couple hundred thousand young people who never voted, never normally vote, came out and put them over the top.
And also, this is fifteen years, twenty years of the universities being crazy left-wing communist indoctrination camps where they were taught all this crap.
And then, well, I'll tell you what, they got another thing coming to them.
If they think for one second, we're going to return to the anti-Semitic st status that we had during World War II.
Because people like me, I'm telling you right now, Shix says, We're standing up.
We're not taking it.
No, we are not taking it.
I'm I'm guarantee you, Donald Trump will figure out how to stop this guy.
And uh, I think the other thing we have to maybe think about uh constitutional amendment, raise the voting age to 30.
You're 27.
You're 20 something.
You're insane.
Yeah, the biggest problem they have is if their Snapchat's working and if their vape is full.
I mean, it's ridiculous.
Yeah, so uh they voted for that.
Anyway, we'll take some calls in a minute.
800 941 Sean is the number.
Mark Simone here.
Follow me on Instagram, by the way.
It's Mark Simone NYC at Instagram.
Uh don't forget to go to Hannity.com, watch Hannity tonight on the Fox News channel, 9 p.m.
in a moment.
While the mainstream media is asleep at the wheel...
Hannity watches on the job bringing you the news.
No one else can.
sean hannity Hey, it's Mark Simone here for Sean Hannity.
Uh we'll take some calls.
800-941-Shawn is the number.
Let's go to Tom in California.
Tom, welcome to the Sean Hannity Show.
Yes, sir.
I gotta wait.
We can get them term limits, and I guarantee the Democrats will vote for them.
Yeah, we got to get rid of these congressmen, these senators that serve 20, 30 years.
How do we get rid of them?
Well, the ones that are in there right now, this is why you say they won't vote.
The ones that are in there right now, just let them grandfather themselves in, and then they'll make it be making a rule that everybody else has to follow that they don't.
So they'll have to vote for it.
They love it.
Um but then you got fifty senators grandfathered in.
How do you get rid of them?
Yeah.
Well, if we don't do it, then they're just gonna stay there.
You know, they'll they'll just keep doing the same thing over and over again.
But if we do do it, then eventually they'll have to go.
Well, okay.
Yeah, but you're right.
That's about the only way they'll agree to vote for it.
You gotta get the Congress to vote for the term limits, but you're right.
And then we've got to wait for each one of them to die, I guess.
Because some of them are not gonna be a long wait, but uh or they can be primaried out, or they can lose, and then they won't be able to do that.
Oh, that's true, that's true.
Yeah, okay.
Good idea, Tom.
That might actually work.
We're trying for one more call.
Let's go to uh Tom in Florida.
Tom in Tallahassee, how you doing?
Hey, well, when it comes to this uh Epstein conspiracy, remember one thing the mouth can say anything, but the wallet speaks loud and true.
And Jeffrey Epstein was a major contributor to one party and one party only, the Democratic Party.
Hundreds of thousands of dollars going all the way back to the nineteen nineties.
Donald Trump has no financial reasons, certainly Pam Bunny has no financial reasons to cover up for him.
Trump's accused of taking one flight to his see his uh his what is it, casino up in Atlantic, but Bill Clinton, uh rich uh Yeah, Trump took one flight on the Epstein plane, but he had his wife and his daughter with him at the time, and it was just a ride to Florida, which was uh but you're right, that's a very good point.
Although there's a lot of donors, you know, the Epstein list.
That's not a list, but the guys were all upper east side, Palm Beach, many of them uh uh donors.
Uh I remember there was a party going on.
I was at when Epstein was arrested on the runway, and all of a sudden the news spread through the room.
There were about twelve guys who went flying out of that room, ran home.
I think to wipe out their computer or uh race stuff or whatever.
Anyway, uh we'll get to Mom Dami and more in the next hour.
Mark Simone here for Sean Hannity.
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